


Blameless

by LaFort19



Category: The Bold and the Beautiful
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:08:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 91,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28766823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaFort19/pseuds/LaFort19
Summary: Saw a recap of a confrontation between Steffy and Hope that made me laugh and it spawned a story in my head.
Relationships: Steffy Forrester/Hope Logan
Comments: 84
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in a different universe for B&B. Liam and Hope moved forward after Steffy said f*** him after cheating on her after Kelly (Phoebe) was born. Beth was never kidnapped, Thomas and Douglas live in NYC with Caroline and Tridge has been married all of Steffy’s life much to Brooke’s chagrin.

Steffy knew that a confrontation would be imminent. Liam was such a whining wimp, she was going to enjoy this. He was such a malleable piece of dough whenever his feelings were hurt which was a regular occurrence. He thought Hope was cheating on him which was funny to her. Hope wouldn’t cheat unless… Steffy just laughed to herself.

She did concede that it wasn’t her smartest idea to have sex with Liam especially when it wasn’t even particularly satisfying. The opportunity to get what she wanted did, it was too nice to concede. She played her cards right, she finally let go. Too much of her adult life was done placating him and she was done. She played him like a fiddle, she wanted the guilt to mount within him that he had no choice, but to tell Hope.

When he professed how much he cherished their night it took all of her not to gag. But Liam wasn’t the smartest even with them going through a custody leaving him with only supervised visits, he still came crawling to her door. She felt a little control slipping when he said that he would keep their secret. That wasn’t what she wanted so she did something unexpected. She told him that she was pregnant and if she wasn’t concentrating on her face not breaking, she would have laughed at his reaction.

She knew that he had no choice but to tell Hope now. Steffy wasn’t going to rest until Hope knew the sordid truth. The puppy dog sadness on Liam’s face made her gleeful. She was getting everything she wanted in the interim.

What she hadn’t expected was Hope to be in her office before she was. It did miff her that someone who wasn’t authorized to be in her office without her approval was in it. She was going to have to speak to Aunt Pam about that…

“Hello Hope, how are you today?” Steffy said with a charming smile, she didn’t miss a beat. She just walked to her desk with her work tote and her handbag and set them down.

“Are you really going to do that? I know that you know that Liam told me.”

Steffy schooled her features to keep herself from smirking.

“Whatever it is Hope, can we move it along… there’s lots of work to be done.”

“You can’t seriously think I’m not going to say anything about the issue at hand?!”

Steffy sits down and almost bites her lip to hold herself from laughing but she bites her tongue instead. She takes a breath and then puts on her sorry face.

“Look Hope, I’m sorry. And I know you probably don’t believe me... Liam and me in that night, but you have to understand, it was a huge misunderstanding, and if he could go back…”

“Would he?” Hope was seething from Steffy trying to defend Liam. “Wow, have I been naïve?”

Steffy was already getting tired of this conversation, it wasn’t living up to the expectation she thought it would. She just sighed.

“Hope, please just—” Steffy couldn’t finish her thought and tell Hope to shut up.

“No. No. No. Because it’s all starting to make sense now. Yeah, that giant picture of you and my husband that’s been hanging on your wall this whole time? That he never even once asked you to take it down, did he? And you never had the decency or respect to take it down yourself. You say it is for Kelly when it’s not even in her room. You put that up there for your sick little fantasy... And congratulations, now you’re pregnant with a child that is Liam’s… I bet you would love to go back and do it all over again. Because my marriage, my family might be destroyed.”

Steffy couldn’t keep a straight face anymore, she chuckled at Hope’s words. The fairytale being spewed from her mouth was near comical for Steffy and her action only made Hope look more affronted.

“Hope…”

“Admit it. Admit it Steffy, you finally got what you wanted another chance with Liam, another chance with my husband.”

“Are you done now?”

“How can you be so cavalier? This could destroy my family?”

Steffy took the time to lick her lips slowly and something in the air shifted, maybe not shifted but put even more tension in the room.

“Hmm seems like I just volleyed Hope, it’s rich for you to say those words to me. You sure didn’t give a damn about doing that to me… Oh no you definitely wanted to stick it to me. You came back blazing didn’t you?”

Hope didn’t expect to be put on the spot. She had been so livid about Steffy and Liam sleeping together that she left herself open to Steffy’s derision.

“Steffy we had finally come to a better co-parenting situation… And you ruined the dynamic by doing this.”

“Oh please Liam is a part-time father at best and honestly I prefer it that way. The good thing about the supervised visits is he can’t poison 'Kelly' with his shitty dumb takes. You asked me to admit it, that I wanted _your_ husband. Isn’t that just something… You wait for me like a bitch in heat, to what berate me… for what? The fact that Liam first instinct was to run to me when you didn’t treat him like a shiny new toy... It’s what you should have expected Hope… you go on about me doing this and that, but you don’t want to confront the truth.”

“You are trying to twist this! You didn’t have to let Liam in…” Hope said as she was trying to stand her ground, but she knew that she was losing. She could feel it in her bones that Steffy had the upper hand.

“Yeah, you are right about that, but Liam made vows to you Hope and he could so easily break them with the one person that it actually means something. That should tell you something sweetheart…” The sweet poison of the term of endearment from Steffy’s lips make Hope gasp.

“That you have fashions for my husband?!” Hope felt herself getting livid again. The reminder of Steffy having sex with Liam played in her head.

“Goodness you are so myopic that you can’t see what’s in front of you… This wasn’t overly sophisticated or planned, Liam is just that stupid…”

It wasn’t a long con, but things just fell into place so beautifully.

“So you admit it?! At least that’s something I can believe falling out from your lips.” She tried to hold onto her anger but she realized her misstep as soon as she said it.

Steffy got up from her desk and walked like the apex predator she was towards Hope.

“Why would you be so frivolous Hope? I thought I taught you to be better than that… But look at you… pretending like you don’t secretly love this--”

“How could you ever think that?!”

“Because I know you don’t I… More than anyone else surely... Interrupt me again and there will be consequences. Why don’t you face the truth Hope? Why won’t you admit the truth to yourself?”

“What truth could that be Steffy? You’re being absolutely ridiculous with whatever you are trying to pull.”

“It’s so simple Hope… passion. The fact that you and Liam have none is why you try your damndest to stay in my orbit. I’d say you’re pretty hopeless without me don’t you think? I wasn’t even trying to be punny.”

“You think I invite this into my life. You are out of your mind Steffy!”

Steffy was getting tired of the back and forth… not even the circle they were going into. She decided she needed to get down to the chase. She reached up her skirt and she tracked Hope’s eyes as she let her thong fall to the afghan rug.

“I truly doubt that, but I am out of my panties. It’s okay if you don’t admit it to the world Hope… because I will always know the truth. This Pollyanna life living in that dreary ass shack with Mr. Potato Head isn’t as fun as you thought it was going to be because you don’t have me there to be your counter. You are so jealous… you can’t even hide it... Good thing no one else knows isn’t it?”

“At least you spared me some embarrassment for not until you start to show... It’s the least you could do…” Hope was mad at her face getting red.

“Hmm… are you ready to do some admitting of your own?”

The clicks of Steffy’s calf length boots made Hope cognizant of every step Steffy took. She saw her go towards the sofa on the far side of the office and sit on the sofa and just stare at her.

“What would I even admit to?”

“Hope, you can’t have what you want unless you tell me the truth. Why are you so upset at the fact that Liam slept with me?”

“He’s my husband for Pete’s sake…”

“Wrong answer.” It was getting annoying now, Steffy wasn’t waiting all morning to do this. “Come here.”

Hope hated how it was her first instinct to go to Steffy. She didn’t even think about it. She was at the sofa.

“I’m not doing this all day, why are you so jealous?”

“It should have been me!” Hope screamed out her fury. She could almost cry, when Liam told her of his infidelity, her first thought was why him? “It should have been me and you know it.”

“Hmm… at least you could admit the truth to yourself because I already knew it. Get on your knees.”

It was a long time coming and Hope wasn’t going to squander this.

When Steffy opened her legs… she could see the wetness smeared on the pussy she was going to enjoy. She took the time to kiss Steffy’s thighs which got her moans of appreciation. It made her own pussy wet to hear that reaction for her. She took her time to suck on Steffy’s labia and lapping up the wetness. It seemed like it wasn’t stopping but Hope thought she could just challenge herself.

“Yeah, flick that tongue faster baby, you know how I like it…” Steffy moaned out as she put her hands in Hope’s hair to grind her face for more friction. “You’re doing so good… making up for lost time, aren’t you? You missed this pussy huh? Mmm I can tell...” Another moan ripped through Steffy’s body and Hope was giving Steffy’s clit undivided attention. “Suck on it, harder Hope… Fuck just like that baby! Keep doing it just like that.” Steffy rolled her hips and it just did something to her. It made her buildup feel like it was traveling throughout her whole body instead of just her core. “I’m so close baby… yeah flick that tongue harder baby, mmm almost there.” Hope just listened to the heightened tone of Steffy’s voice. She sucked hard and flicked her tongue as fast as she could as she just watched Steffy’s eyes close. She could feel it when Steffy’s climax took her.

After a couple of minutes, Steffy got up and went to her bag. She knew what was going down today. She pulled out her Lola personal lube and coated her fingers with it. Hope lowered her panties happy to have the feel of Steffy’s fingers in her again.

It was like magic in a bottle for her. Steffy knew what to strum her like her pussy was her rival’s personal violin.

“Steffy, I missed this… Oh god…” Hope couldn’t hold back her groan. She bit her finger to try and control herself.

“I know you have… coming into my office, uninvited and without an appointment… tsk someone would have to be very brave to do something so bold. But you’d do anything for this pussy huh?” Steffy made sure to ground her palm to Hope’s clit and massage it deep and she fucked her with her fingers. She nibbled on Hope’s neck for good measure.

She felt Hope shudder from the deepest parts of her body. Steffy planted kisses. Hope tilted her head because what she really wanted was to kiss Steffy.

She got the same churning in her gut when she kissed Steffy… the stimulation and happiness Hope felt sent her into oblivion.

Steffy pulled her closer and they just kissed. For Hope it felt like they were catching up on the time they went without. After about five minutes Steffy broke away but Hope couldn’t be too disappointed, a blush rose from her cheeks and it made Steffy smile wide.

Steffy felt so good inside because this was what she wanted.

“You know when you kept saying for me to admit it… I know that I can now. This felt so good Hope… you couldn’t possibly understand the feeling…”

“I think I do Steffy.” Hope felt like she was on top of the world.

Steffy went to her ear to tell her a secret even though no one else was in the room but it was something Steffy wanted to do for so long. She starts to speak softly in Hope’s ear.

“It feels so good to say that… you’re fired. What I want is my revenge for what you put me through... You hurt me to the deepest part of my soul because you could, it feels so beautiful to break your heart Hope... The world may not be privy to your bullshit, but I know better than everyone else. You wanted to wreck my life… you know what I value most in life is loyalty and respect and you pissed on it. Go ahead and cry your pathetic tears to someone else. Oh yeah you can’t because then you would have to tell the truth and no one could know that you were munching on my pussy like it’s your favorite meal because you would have no moral high ground to be upset with Liam now and we know you can’t have that. Don’t worry about HFTF either I already changed the line’s name to Daze, it seems like I left you in one... The perks of it being my company I own the damn line… feels so good. Get your underwear and get the fuck out of my office. I have work to do.”

Steffy gets up nonchalantly, goes back to her desk and pages Pam to get her the forecasts she asked for. Hope felt her heart breaking, trying to catch her breath was a challenge and Steffy went about her business like she wasn’t even in the room.

Hope thought Steffy had gotten past it, but Hope should have known better. There was no forgiving done on Steffy’s part after what she did. It was like she was on autopilot, one action led to another and she somehow was home.

When she opened the door to the cabin, Liam was there playing with Beth.

“How was your day?” Liam was testing the waters. He knew that Hope couldn’t get mad with Beth in the room. It was why he made Beth take her nap early.

“I want a divorce.” It was all Hope said and then she left the room and went straight to the bathroom. She cried in the shower wondering how the hell she got there?


	2. Chapter 2

Hope was so mad with herself, Steffy, Liam… everything. She didn’t understand what the hell happened with Steffy… She thought she and Steffy were in a better place. There was a gulf there still, a tension that Hope couldn’t put her finger on but she could just feel it. She knew she couldn’t be close to Steffy… not like she was used too. She missed that closeness, craved it more than anything she had in her life.

She settled with Liam because of her animosity with Steffy. But then Liam cheated on her with Steffy no less. It was a bitter pill to swallow. She was so mad at Steffy because Liam was forgiven and yet she wasn’t. She just got fired from her job and all she could think to herself was how Steffy acted like she didn’t exist after they had just been intimate… It made her feel feel a chill that a sweater couldn’t shelter her from. 

Confronting Steffy felt like the worst idea she had now because she thought she got what she wanted only for it to be tinged with Steffy’s fury. She didn’t work at FC anymore. Work was the only place that she could see Steffy and now it was gone. It was a hollow feeling left inside. She didn’t know what she was going to do next, she thought she had it figured out. She was going to confront Steffy and finally put stuff to bed. She wanted the tension from them to dissipate but it seemed that it only got stronger. She didn’t know how she was gonna come back from this, she felt like her heart was broken in two. 

She thought her heart hurt when Liam left her for Steffy all those years ago but it was so much more painful that Steffy chose Liam instead of her. She could admit that punishing Steffy was a motivating factor when she went for Liam. When she got pregnant it changed everything, she was trying to make the best of it for Beth and have the life that she never had growing up. 

She didn’t have Steffy but she'd still had a proximity to her and that was enough. Beth and Kelly being sisters, it was always going to keep her in Steffy’s orbit but Steffy made sure to take Liam to court after he actively ignored Kelly which only serve to make Steffy even more upset. What Hope didn’t understand was how could she take Liam to court for custody and still be so friendly with him. She was on the outside but there Liam was always getting to see her, under the guise of being with Kelly. Hope had to accept that even if she didn’t always believe it. She didn’t believe him because why does he not take Beth each time he went?

She didn’t want to be stuck in her marriage with Liam anymore. When she and Steffy were being intimate, she felt like she was finally going to have what she wanted. She should have known better because Steffy unleashed her own fury on Hope when she least expected it. It hurt her in a way that nothing else had and she didn't know how to accept it. She had asked Liam for a divorce and it had Brooke looking at her like she was crazy.

Hope told Liam that she wanted a divorce because this wasn’t going to work, he betrayed her trust and it was something that she was just not going to forgive this time. Liam had no clue that Hope had been intimate with Steffy as well. He thought that this would blow over with time and a lot of begging but Hope knew that she would remain firm on her answer. Brooke wondered how in the world was her daughter going to let Steffy come in and wreck her family. It was almost like Hope had given up, it was something that Brooke just couldn’t accept and she wanted more answers.

These were the times where Hope wished she could speak with Bridget but Bridget wanted nothing to do with her. For a long time, she thought that Bridget wouldn’t choose sides but it hurt her when Bridget sided with Steffy when they were the one that were sisters, in Hope’s mind it didn’t matter if most of her life they were estranged. She thought they were getting to a new place, a place of comfort it felt like the rug had been pulled under her when Bridget said that she wanted nothing to do with her. 

Hope couldn’t imagine what Steffy had said to Bridget to make her completely shut Hope out of her life. Hope had no contact with her nieces and nephew. She was persona non grata to Bridget and she couldn’t even ask Bridget why because Bridget blocked her on everything. 

It had been a couple of days since Hope had asked Liam to move out… Her actions only made Brooke question her more including today.

“Hope, do you really think that this is a wise decision? Have you thought about what it would mean Beth to grow up without her father in the home? Whatever is going on between you and Liam I know you to can get through it, you have been through so much together, overcome so many obstacles namely Steffy… Do you really think that she won't take the opportunity to get him back? Yes I know what he did was wrong but do you really think that you should be throwing away your whole marriage? I know it’s not the most ideal situation, but Hope you have to think about that and your future… are you really going to let Steffy win? She has made it her life’s mission to sow discord in your life, are you really going to let her have this power over you?” Brooke was trying to make Hope see that this was not the way. She wasn’t going to have her daughter throw away everything they worked so hard for, fought for and let Steffy slither her way back into Liam’s sphere.

Hope thought to herself that Steffy already had power over her, that's what made everything so painful for her. It was something she also couldn’t tell Brooke, there was just something in her that didn't trust confiding in her mother about her most intimate relationship and the tension that comes from it. Only a few people knew about the true dynamics between Hope and Steffy and none of them talk to her. She didn’t expect for Ridge and Taylor to really speak to her. Ridge was cordial with Hope when they were at work but he was very cool with her. Taylor didn’t come to the office often, but she did sometimes bring Steffy and Ridge lunch so they could eat together.   
Hope remembered as her mother was droning on about not throwing Liam away, when Taylor passed by her... Hope was polite and said hello and the look Taylor gave her froze her in place. It was the same look Steffy gave her that day in the office. It was jarring to see the same fury from two different people who looked so similar. 

“Mom, I don’t want to be with Liam anymore and I doubt that Liam would get Steffy to take him back regardless if she is having his child…” Hope said as she knew the truth. Steffy hated Liam and her too, she did what she did for revenge.

“Hope, I truly believe that you’re being naïve… You and Steffy have been in this back and forth for so many years for Liam’s heart. This is definitely something that she would take advantage of and they’re having another child, that is something that can bond them even more she's going to have two children by him and you'll only have one… Think about it if you forgive him and keep forging on you two can get through it and she’ll have no power to do anything.” Brooke said as she was flabbergasted at how calm her daughter was. She was trying to convey the reality of another child bonding Liam to Steffy and yet Hope acted like it was just no big deal to let Liam go.

“Mom, I’m more tired of this back and forth than anything else in my life. I’m making this decision for myself and for my daughter, I’m choosing for the chance to be happy and I am just not with Liam. The first instinct shouldn't be to forgive him, he’s having a child with his ex-wife, and they already share a daughter… Yes I know I have Beth with Liam, but what does that really mean? Does that mean I should be fighting for him because what… I need to stay for Beth… I already tried that. That’s a ludicrous thought to do it again, Liam disrespecting me and I’m sure he enjoyed doing that. I don’t want to keep living my life wondering when is the next time he's going to step out on me… And I’m sure as hell not going to raise my daughter in an environment like that, letting her think it’s okay for anyone to be treated such. I’m trying to be strong for my daughter and I’m not going to have you or anyone tell me I should settle for a man who doesn’t take his vows seriously. He puts me on a pedestal and if I don’t live up to his weird and frankly impossible standards, the first thing he does is go find someone else… How could you as my mother want such a thing for me? I know I grew up without Deacon in my life, that is something that I work through every day of my life but I’m not going to have my daughter think it’s okay and sweep things under the rug as if nothing's wrong. I’m not happy and that should be enough to not want this marriage anymore.” Hope said as she was adamant on her decision she wasn't changing her mind and no one was going to do it for her. She knew that she had to live with the consequences of her actions and she just couldn't do another day with being married to Liam. That was the problem with settling for someone you didn't want in the first place.

“I’m not saying you need to forgive him so easily and so fast but I also don’t believe that you should be throwing away your marriage, you can go to counseling, open lines of communication. The breakdown of marriage due to a lack of communication is a travesty and I hate to see you throw away all those years like they were nothing. Steffy must be salivating over your distress and you're just going to give her everything she wants.” Brooke was seething from the thought of Steffy getting everything she wanted.

Hope thought bitterly that her mother was right but also wrong at the same time. The last thing Steffy wanted was Liam, but Brooke did not know how right she was, Hope served Steffy exactly what she wanted on a silver platter. She didn’t know how the new dynamic was going to be or what the future held but she knew that she just couldn’t move forward the way she had been living. She wasn’t happy and she hadn’t been for a long time. It was easy to lash out at Steffy, make excuses and hurt her, feeling justified doing bad things to her. 

“But that’s the thing mom, I don’t want to forgive Liam and I don’t need to… I’m not going to stop him from being a father to Beth, he just won't be in my bed. He doesn’t have my love and he doesn’t have my trust because I can’t give one without the other. He abused that, uses that… He had the nerve to say the only reason he did what he did was my fault… How could I drive him into the arms of Steffy, all I did was do my job and try to be good at it, is it my fault that he's insecure… I have given him no reason to ever not trust me, working late is his excuse? If that’s so would it be okay for me to do that when he is at Spencer Publications doing his job… It’s very convenient for him to be a cheater, he gets away with it because he gaslights you into making you think that is your fault… That’s not okay, I refuse to fall into a trap of being with someone so paranoid because it only gets worse. With Liam it’s always going to be the next time, you can always trust in that there's always a continuity with his cheating and I want no part of it. After all, he did cheat with me… That’s how we got Beth…”

“Hope that's completely different, you and Liam created a child from love…” Brooke couldn’t believe that hope was being so cavalier about it all.

“Don't you think that's rich coming from you, was I created from love? Is that some justification for cheating, it’s okay because we’re in love… You don’t care who you hurt because to you the ends justify the means. You want me to be the same way, not truly caring about the fallout that other people feel from my actions… Bridget used to say that everything was fair game to you. You never thought about the true magnitude of the destruction that you caused… You’d rather ask for forgiveness then permission. Look at me, I’m the product of an affair that my mother had with my sister’s husband, that is something you would expect from a TV drama about messed up individuals. You want me to be just like you and I have no interest in that. I’m not doing this to hurt you I’m just saying how I feel, I can’t keep pretending then my actions don't hurt other people.” Hope said as she thought about how intense Steffy’s fury was.

Brooke could never really justify anything they had to deal with the circumstances of Hope’s birth… It was something that she could never live down. It was always going to be her Achilles heel, she hurt her daughter with her betrayal and it was the last straw for Bridget. Instead of trying to make Hope see her side of it, she just let it slide because there was no winning that.

“And what about Steffy, is she supposed to be blameless? We know that she was lying in wait waiting for the opportunity to strike, you need to hit back. You need to let her know that this is not okay. On top of her doing something so disgusting and typical of her, she fires you and then has the audacity to change the name of your line?! Why are you letting her get so much over on you? It’s like you don’t even want to fight back…”

“I don’t want to fight back mom, I don’t have the time nor the patience nor the want to do that, I have to focus on my daughter, that's the only thing that I can focus on, yes it hurts to lose my line and it hurts that Liam and Steffy had sex, it hurts me in a way that I just can’t describe. It’s sharp and profound and the wound is really deep, but mom you need to listen right now I am not going to retaliate, I’m not going to try to hold on to Liam even harder, it's just not worth it because it always turns out the same. I’m going to have to forgive Liam for the next boneheaded and thoughtless decision he makes… I don't want to be married to a stooge.”

“I’m not going to give up on your love, you to have something special, something that most people dream of, and I don’t want you to regret this one day with not fighting for that special once in a lifetime love… I know the hurt is fresh and you just want to give up, so I won’t keep pushing it further for now, but I will tell you now I am not giving up. I think you should really speak to Liam about the future of your relationship before you start making so many rash decisions because it doesn’t only affect you, it will affect your daughter.” Brooke try to explain to her daughter that she just couldn't run when things got tough, it was never going to solve anything if hope didn't deal with it head on. 

Hope didn’t even bother to reply to her mother, it was like a merry go round saying the same things over and over… she didn’t love Liam and she just wasn’t going to pretend anymore. And the worst thing that she could do was stay in a relationship with someone so toxic, emotionally abusive and insecure. The fact that her mother kept going on and on about Steffy winning and not about how hurt her feelings were really put things into perspective for her. She knew that she couldn’t trust her mom with her true feelings because it was always about sticking it to stuffy and doing it out of spite. She hated this act that her mother hated Steffy with the passion of a thousand suns because of her acrimonious relationship with Taylor. It wasn’t Steffy’s fault that her parents love each other. Her mother went about destiny all the time saying she was robbed, but she just thinks of how many destinies her mother had when she was growing up, her carelessness of how it affected Hope growing up.

“Mom, you know what I’m really tired I think I’m just gonna go lie down and take a nap at my house.” Hope said as she was just trying to get away from her mother.

Hope just got up and left the room not really waiting for her mother to say anything, the walk back to the cabin was enlightening but also sad… She really needed to have a conversation with Steffy but she just didn't know how that was going to happen now with her being fired from FC. Even Liam didn’t know where Steffy really lived. She used her old condo for supervised visits. She felt like she was at a crossroads, when she got into the cabin, she settled on the couch just replaying the events of the day in the office. It was something that haunted her but she just couldn't stop thinking about it because it was the closest she had been to Steffy in such a long time. Even though it was a painful memory to think about, she still wanted too… She closed her eyes so she could vividly think back to the images of Steffy touching her, kissing her… 

In her thoughts she was able to pretend it was loving caresses and it made her feel cherished, she fell asleep to thoughts of when she and Steffy kissed. It was the first time in days she could fall asleep without feeling like her heart would bottom out from pain.


	3. Chapter 3

4 years earlier

Hope had run away to Italy to escape the bad memories in LA. She was shedding so much baggage the more miles she put between herself and her hometown. She knew she had misplaced anger towards Wyatt, but she couldn’t help her thoughts. She had it up to here with seeing Liam say he love her but always looking at the next woman.

She always blamed Steffy trying to steal Liam from her but she saw it wasn’t the case. His dalliance with Ivy proved to her that this was Liam’s compulsion. She spent years crafting Liam as this love of her life and that Steffy was trying to keep her happiness from her, but she took a deep look and had to admit to herself that Steffy was probably under a similar assumption.

Liam escaped accountability and she shoved most of it towards Steffy. But Steffy was gone… she was living her life and Hope couldn’t blame Steffy for any of Liam’s actions. She thought if that one part of the equation was gone, then things would change but it was more of the same.

Hope decided that she was going to explore Italy and try to forget of the problems that plagued her in LA. Her mom kept telling her that it was her and Liam’s time now. Steffy was out of the picture and she had to make best with the circumstances. The circumstances… that pissed her off. She cut Brooke off, the circumstances were her dead baby. She had enough of her mother convincing her to look like a fool for a man who was even more foolish than she was.

Hope had left Tuscany for Rome. She planned on going to some museums. She had her pocket dictionary, but her butchering of the Italian language had plenty of servers taking pity on her. A lot of them spoke some English due to many people taking vacations there from English-speaking countries.

As she was enjoying her biscotti and ristretto while she read a guide on things to do while visiting Italy, the sound of stiletto heels stomping on the wood caught her attention. It was near melodic as the woman marched. The hair of the woman was so thick and bountiful in beautiful waves. To Hope it was had her touching her hair self-consciously wondering how she could get some much volume in her hair. It wasn’t like her hair was thin, but this hair almost had a life of its own.

The woman spoke in her perfect Italian, which shouldn’t be a surprise to Hope since that was the norm here, but it was just such a contrast from her struggling to order her food and coffee. The woman turned and Hope was in shock.

The woman from the side was a dead ringer for Steffy. She looked at the woman’s attire, tight sheath dress and open trench. It was like watching a classic movie seeing her in motion… Sophia Loren power strutting through the streets of Italy...

The woman in question felt eyes staring at her and looked in the direction that she felt it and she saw who was staring at her and she stared right back with an intense glare.

It makes Hope gasp loudly because there was no question that it was Steffy now from the look she sent her way.

“Stefania.” The man at the counter called for her order. She thanked him and went right in front of Hope’s table and placed her food on the table. She gracefully slinked into the seat and the intensity of Steffy’s eyes fell on Hope.

“Hello Hope…”

Hope wasn’t sure how long time passed but she finally roused herself.

“Hello Steffy…”

“I heard about your baby, I’m sorry about your heartache.” The kindness in her voice made Hope’s whole body red. It reminded her of the time Steffy lost her child and how her family badgered her instead of leaving her alone. Her sorries felt empty to her now that she has lost her own child.

“Thank you that means a lot more than I could ever explain… What are you doing here?”

“Business.” Steffy said plainly. She was trying to mitigate the disaster from Hope, Liam, and Wyatt gallivanting on whims. All of that foolish investment by her grandfather cost them dearly. Her father was pissed that they were so over budget in their travel and marketing expenses but he was in Paris with her mother, so Eric kept Rick at the helm. Even though they would be able to deduct some of those expenses, the Hope for the Future line and the partnership with Fuller Designs were not going as well as it was supposed to, so they had a sharp decline.

Steffy told Ridge that she was going to expand the wholesale business on lines she believed in. Her dad said it was going to be too ambitious, that they would need around two thousand new accounts.

She joked to her dad that ambitious was her middle name, her mother butted in saying that it was actually Ann which made her roll her eyes.

Hope was thinking about her abrupt departure from Forrester Creations. What followed was her line being cut almost immediately. It did hurt that it could be axed so quickly after her departure, but she knew the sales were in the toilet.

“Oh that’s great. Do you live in Italy now?” It was weird to make small talk with Steffy with all that has happened between them and even more knowing that Steffy was probably doing business to fix some blunders due to her, Liam and Wyatt.

“No, I commute from my home base. How about you?” Steffy just sipped her plain black coffee as she stared at Hope.

It was a little unnerving to Hope how Steffy had a knack for staring right into people’s eyes. It made Hope feel like she was always on the spot.

“I ran away from home after everything. I’m just trying to take things a day at a time and figure myself out.” Hope was still trying to process everything with losing her son.

“That’s all you really can do. I will say each day that passes gets incrementally easier. The wound will hurt sometimes but it won’t be all encompassing like it feels when it’s fresh.” Steffy was able to offer some words of solace. She knew there isn’t a universal way of dealing with miscarriages or stillbirth, it was just her way of coping.

“I really hope so. I want to try new things too. I figured I’m young I should travel while I can. Have you been to Rome before?”

“I’m here quite a bit… you know business and all. I’m all over Europe. I really do commute.”

Hope found herself interested in knowing about Steffy’s commute. It was the first time she saw a familiar face. Steffy had a slight distrustful face when Hope asked about her work, but she did tell her about the need of two thousand accounts.

Hope was floored, that number seemed so large but when Steffy explained that she was securing her 1980th account it left Hope stunned. She realized that she really did nothing for FC while Steffy was hustling.

Steffy was forthright with her father, she had commissioned an arab-inclusive clothing push which really helped them with an influx of accounts. She leveraged her mother’s relationship with Prince Omar to gain legitimacy. Even though Ridge hated it, his daughter wasn’t going to be deterred to use any and every relationship she had to her advantage. Her likeness to her mother and the affection Omar still carried for Taylor gave them a big push. Their headway in Morroco led to a host of accounts clamoring to work with them all over MENA countries...

“I was going to go to a museum. Do you have any more meetings today?” Hope was inviting Steffy to do something would have never happened if they were in LA. She felt like a different Hope here though, she yearned to spend time with someone she knew. It was great to be on a path of self-discovery, but it could get lonely.

“No, I don’t.”

“Would you like to come with me?” Hope was actually nervous, Steffy’s face was just blank. She couldn’t read it if Steffy knew that she was trying to invite her to come too.

“Hmm, which museum?”

“Umm… Bor-ghee-see…”

“Galleria Borghese. That’s a good one.” Steffy had to correct Hope, it grated her ears to hear such a horrible pronunciation.

“I didn’t know you knew Italian.”

“I speak 6 languages Hope. There’s a lot you don’t know about me… I’m more than the sexed up harlot you painted me as.” She wasn’t going to mince words with Hope. She wasn’t one of the people who walked around eggshells around Hope.

It made Hope wince when Steffy said her interpretation of how Steffy was. She saw things through a different lens when Steffy wasn’t in the picture.

“I’m sorry. I always blamed you and it was wrong. My slut-shaming really had no place considering there’s nothing wrong with a woman being assured with herself and enjoying sex. I have matured from that kind of mindset and I know it was from societal misogyny and my own insecurities that fueled that.”

Steffy had hoped that Hope would say something like this since rolling around in hers and Liam’s bed is something she remembered vividly.

“I can respect that. Thank you for the apology but more importantly, I’m happy you could confront your biases about sex and people who have it.” The judgmental nature of how Hope used to approach the subject of sex always irked her. She was seen as this demure innocent lamb and Steffy using sex and her body to entice Liam. Steffy loved her body and her sexuality she would apologize to no one for it. It wasn’t hard for Steffy to decipher that it probably had more to do with Hope and her issues with Brooke, but she didn’t enjoy being the outlet in which Hope took those frustrations out on. Her mom was the therapist not her.

“Do you want to go to the Bor--, the gallery with me.”

“Sure I have some time to burn.”

Steffy had been to the Borghese many times. She knew every artifact in there.

When the ladies got there. Steffy communicated many of the sculptures to Hope. Steffy had a way with oration that made people interested in what she had to say.

She could make everything sound interesting and break it down for you in ways you could understand. She took away a lot of the pretentiousness associated with art and made it fun to learn. She just kept listening to her as she wondered if they could have become friends sooner had they not had petty squabbles about men.


	4. Chapter 4

Hope enjoyed listening to Steffy speak. It was hard not to… she learned that Steffy studied history had a masters in the subject. It seemed like a strange concept in theory but worked for Forrester Creations.

Hope learned that Steffy had several internships at different museums around the world learning about curating art. It had been a big focal point for Steffy to archive iconic pieces that Forrester Originals and then Forrester Creations had been known for. She used her knowledge of curating for preserving pieces synonymous with Forrester greatness. Steffy viewed her father and grandfather as artists so she was doing her part to showcase it.

After they spent the rest of the day together, Hope found she didn’t want it to end. They had walked through the gardens of Borghese as well and Hope didn’t know what came over, her hand reached for Steffy’s, she wanted to chastise herself for being so forward but Steffy didn’t knock her hand away. These gardens had a romantic feel. Walking with Steffy through them made it feel like a… date. Steffy had no shortage of jokes which made Hope feel a sense of ease she hadn’t felt in so long. It was the first time she laughed since the baby.

The sun was going down and Steffy had a plane to catch back to Paris which made Hope upset… learning about this Steffy made this goodbye bittersweet. She begged Steffy to stay for a while. She knew Steffy had so much work to do… some of it was her fault but she didn’t want Steffy to leave.

Steffy weighed her options as Hope held onto her wrist crying to her in the street insistent on her staying.

Steffy just calmly fished her cell phone out her bag and called Paolo telling him to extend her hotel stay. She was sure the St. Regis adored her doing that.

It excited Hope so much when Steffy said that she was staying, she practically mauled Steffy with a hug. Steffy quickly texted her dad saying that she would be on an extended vacation.

“You’re rubbing my feet though. I’ve been rocking these heels all day, but my feet are going to be aching when I take them off.”

“Fine! I’ll rub your feet Queen Stephanie!” Hope could care less. Steffy was staying.

Hope followed Steffy back to her hotel and was amazed at Steffy’s hotel room. It was the presidential suite, it was beautiful. Hope had been staying at a hostel to make her money last further.

Being on the outs with Brooke meant she was on her own, Hope’s pride was not going to ask her mother for anything.

She fell on the bed and she forgot what it was like to sleep on something so plush. She started to do angels on the bed. Steffy could see that Hope’s eyes got so excited at her bed it made her think that Hope wasn’t staying somewhere as nice.

It made her mind go in so many directions that Hope was probably on a fuck Brooke vibe and that made her smile.

“You wanna stay the night with me?” Steffy didn’t mean for it to sound as suggestive as it sounded but she was sure that Hope wouldn’t catch on to the unintended double entendre.

“Yeah, that would be so fun. My stuff is at the hostel. It’s not far from here.” Hope didn’t mind picking up her stuff in the morning, but she also liked to have her stuff with her.

“Yeah, let’s go get it…” It wasn’t that dark outside. Steffy didn’t mind walking but she did change the type of shoes she was wearing though. She refused to walk anymore in the stilettos.

They only took about thirty minutes to get back to the hotel. Steffy wanted to relax and the first step was taking a shower. The hot water beat down on her skin in the best way.

She felt refreshed as she came out of the bathroom. Steffy told Hope she had free reign over the bathroom which made Hope so happy she felt like she had grime on her because the sun was so hot today.

She went to the bathroom, Steffy went to get dressed she bent over when her towel fell.

Hope had forgotten her bodywash, it was at the exact moment Steffy’s towel fell that Hope came back in the room she was greeted to a full view of Steffy’s vagina from behind and she couldn’t stop looking. It made her feel funny in her middle. Her attraction for Steffy only grew as the day went by but she hadn’t expected to see her naked. Seeing Steffy’s like this made her want to touch herself.

She had to snap herself out her daze and she went back to the bathroom and decided she would just use Steffy’s stuff.

It kept replaying in Hope’s mind and she was turned on... It was a development that she didn’t foresee. It was obvious to anyone with functional eyes that Steffy was gorgeous, but she started to see Steffy in a new light.

She had always been intelligent, insanely so… charming to whom she wanted to be charming too and kind to those who she felt deserved her kindness. Having this attention all to herself made Hope understand how someone could be so attracted to the brunette.

She felt guilty for being attracted to Steffy, she was extending an overture of a tentative friendship and Hope could only think about how it would be for Steffy to let Hope lick her pussy. She never thought about being with a woman much before even though she could see the allure. She only knew Liam and she got caught up in that for years and then Wyatt. 

She felt shame but shame was a powerful emotion, it made her orgasm that much stronger when she fucked herself with her fingers imagining how Steffy would do it.

When she came out of the shower, she saw Steffy resting on the bed on her side of the bed and Hope berated herself in her mind. Thinking about sides of the bed were for couples. She was just spending the night here instead of the hostel.

“You hungry? I’m going to order some food. I’m starving…” Steffy had been looking at the menu the whole time Hope was taking a shower. She couldn’t decide what she wanted to order. When Hope was silent, it made Steffy confused because she assumed Hope would be hungry too since they were together pretty much all day. “Babe?”

When Steffy referred to Hope as babe gave her butterfies and she didn’t think words could have such an effect on her again.

“Yeah, sorry I was just in my head. I’m hungry…” Hope quickly got her hairbrush. She took off the shower cap and gave her mane a few strokes and put it into a ponytail. She saw Steffy had a covering on her head probably to keep her hair bouncy for tomorrow.

She climbed onto the bed and went right next to Steffy so she could see the menu. There was something tantalizing smelling like each other. Hope closed her eyes for a brief second took a whiff of Steffy. She settled in beside her looking at the menu. Everything was in Italian, she knew she would need her pocket dictionary so she started to get out of bed but Steffy’s hand was on her arm.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to get my pocket dictionary so I can decipher…”

“Hope, I can speak Italian… by the time you dissect the whole menu I’ll probably just want to go to sleep hungry. Is there anything you are in the mood for?”

The question made Hope get red in color. What she was in the mood for wasn’t on the menu….

“I don’t know what are you thinking of getting?”

“I’m the worst when it comes to this? Everything is so good that I can’t decide. Paolo my concierge king recommended Osteria Fratelli. It’s so good but I think I narrowed it down to two things…” Steffy continued to tell Hope about the two dishes.

“Well you know it better than I do so maybe let’s each order a dish and then just share.” The smile Hope gets in response to what she says makes her heart flutter and she feels a little more guilty.

“That’s a great idea. I’m going to call Paolo and see if he can get it for us… if not we’ll have to get the room service from the St. Regis.”

As Steffy called her concierge guy, she made funny faces at Hope which made the blonde woman laugh at her silly antics.

Paolo told Steffy that he would get her order no problem. About half an hour later there was a knock on the door. When Steffy answered it was Paolo with her food. She gave her guy a tip and hug goodnight.

The girls enjoyed their food and ate off each other’s plates as they watched an Italian soap opera. Steffy was giving Hope a play by play. Hope questioned the motivations of some of the characters and Steffy’s answers were more ridiculous than the plot itself.

Hope enjoyed Steffy’s play by play so much she didn’t even notice that both their plates were empty at this point. Steffy had scored the last piece of shrimp on Hope’s plate and she was so sad when their food was finished.

She loved explaining the ridiculousness of Italian soap operas. They had their own special brand of crazy. She didn’t watch them often… only when she was in Italy so most of the time she was just as lost as someone who didn’t normally watch these shows.

When the nighttime soap finished the ladies just gathered the trash from their dinner and threw it into the garbage and got back into bed.

“Did you think I would forget?” Steffy had been waiting hours for this.

“Forget what?”

Steffy lifted up her legs slightly are flexed her feet.

“You owe me a foot rub babe…”

“Oh!” Hope chuckled remembering what she agreed to hours earlier. Steffy threw her a bottle of oil to use.

Hope felt the fluttering feeling again when Steffy called her babe. She got some of the oil and warmed it in her hands and started to knead Steffy’s right foot.

When Steffy started to moan Hope’s nipples hardened. It startled her when Steffy bite her lip because Hope was getting turned on. It started to really embarrass her; she couldn’t stop herself from tearing up.

“Hope, babe… harder, You need to get in deeper…” Steffy’s eyes were closed. Hope was giving her a pretty good foot massage but then it just stopped. When she opened her eyes Hope was crying. “Hope, why are you crying? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do this… It’s wrong.”

“Why is rubbing my feet wrong?!”

“You’ll get mad at me if I tell you…” Hope was scared to ruin this. They had such a good day.

“Hope, whatever it is I promise I won’t get mad.” It was alarming Steffy what could have Hope crying like this.

“Today was so nice, at the gallery and then walking through the garden. You invited me to stay here with you after I begged you not to go home and I am being horrible.”

“Hope you are not being horrible. I think you are being just fine.”

“No, I’m not Steffy. I did something really bad. I was in the bathroom and I realized I forgot my bodywash and then I came back in to get it but then as I was walking your towel fell and you bent over to get it. I saw your vagina…”

“Hope, that happens. My towel fell off by mistake. It’s not like you ripped it from me. That’s not a big deal.”

“But I liked it...” Hope whispered it as she tried to find her voice again. “…I kept imagining it when I was in the shower and I played with myself imagining it was you fingering me. And then when I was rubbing your feet and you started moaning and it magnified. You calling me babe… I like it and I hate myself for it.” Hope confessed to Steffy how she felt, she felt better for admitting her feelings but was afraid now.


	5. Chapter 5

“Did you cum?” Steffy was dying to know.

“What?!”

“When you were fucking yourself imagining it was me? Did you cum?”

Hope couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Well… yeah… You’re not mad at me?”

“Hope, you being attracted to me doesn’t bother me… You’re a pretty girl… I’m flattered to be honest.” Steffy loved to be admired. She was a person who loved to accentuate her features. “The atmosphere is rife with sexual tension, I felt it too. You think I didn’t notice… you practically hanging on my every word like a kid on the monkey bars.” Steffy got up and crawled on the bed on her hands and knees closer to Hope, making sure Hope could see her both her breasts in her silk camisole dress. 

When she got to her destination right in front of a terrified but intrigued Hope, Steffy wanted to eat it up. This was more delicious than her dinner. 

Steffy reached up gently cupped both of Hope’s breast and Hope gasped. 

“Are those nipples hard for me?” Steffy had a taunting sexual nature sometimes. 

Hope just nodded loving the feeling of Steffy’s hands on her breast even if her t-shirt obscured the feeling a little. 

“Mmm.” Hope bit her lip enjoying the attention.

“I bet you would love them in my mouth, wouldn’t you?” 

“Yes…” Hope’s voice cracked. Her eyes were dilating to proportions that Steffy just loved.

“I bet when you saw my pussy you just wanted to have a taste didn’t you?”

“Yes… so badly. It’s all I can think about now…”

“Well… if you do well in rubbing my feet. I just might let you have a taste of the kitty…” Steffy licks Hope’s lips before biting the woman’s bottom lip. Which only made Hope’s nipples harder. Steffy could still feel them because her hands never left Hope’s breast. Hope let out a long moan when Steffy lightly twisted her nipples in between her fingers. 

Hope was shocked at the turn of events but the prospect of getting what she wants makes her so happy. This whole conversation with Steffy has been the most erotic thing she ever has done in her life and they haven’t even kissed techincally. 

Hope is kind of mad that she has to give Steffy the foot massage for a chance of eating her out. She wanted to just skip over that part and get to it. 

“I’ll get back to rubbing your feet. Queen Steffy.” Hope added the Queen Steffy in a playful mocking manner.

“Thank you for recognizing that I am a queen but I prefer Regina Stephanie. When I fuck you sweetheart you will say my name...” The order makes Hope lick her lips when she heard Steffy… Stephanie said she would fuck her. “…Now where were we? I could have sworn I had wanted it harder baby.” Steffy goes back to her original position on the bed and Hope goes back to kneading her foot making sure to really get the spots that make Steffy moan the loudest. 

Hope’s fingers started to hurt after thirty minutes but she made sure that both of Steffy’s feet had been rubbed and kneaded. 

“How do you think I did?” Hope needed to know. Steffy’s moaning only made things worse.

Steffy said nothing but she opened her legs wide, Hope could see that Steffy had worn no underwear and she just marveled at the site. She had never given oral sex to a woman before. She tried to remember the things Wyatt did to her. He was better than Liam at it but sometimes he took too long to make her cum, she had to help speed it along. 

“Come and get what you wanted all night baby...” Steffy got a good foot rub, the best way to cap off her night was to cum. 

Hope smiled, she was nervous but excited. She lied down on her stomach and got closer to Steffy’s center. She touched Steffy’s leg and it was so soft and smooth. It felt so nice for her to touch. She kissed Steffy’s calf and when she noticed it made Steffy smile, it made her want to leave a trail of kisses so that’s what she did. 

When she got Steffy’s center, she didn’t just dive right in, she slipped a labia in her mouth and suckled a little bit. Steffy’s hand found her way into Hope’s hair. 

It made Hope moan as she slipped Steffy’s clit into her mouth as Steffy was massaging her scalp. 

“Fuck baby, I like that. Fuck me.” Steffy wanted more. 

Hope slipped a finger in her and curled it upward. When she saw there was no resistance, she added another finger and continued to massage Steffy’s g-spot and then thrust again. She used her other hand to lift up the hood of Steffy’s clit some more and get to more of Steffy’s clit in her mouth. 

Hope took her time licking and sucking on it and pressed hard Steffy’s g-spot and it had Steffy coming… her hips kept bucking riding Hope’s face. 

Steffy’s orgasm had her in bliss. 

“Hope, baby come here…”

Hope came up… mouth wet from Steffy’s cum proud of herself because she was the reason Steffy became undone. 

Steffy patted the spot right next to her, when lied down face to face with Steffy, Steffy reached over and kissed her. 

Hope had no idea what kissing Steffy would be like, but her fantasy was a pale in comparison to the reality. It just made her yearn for Steffy even more. 

Steffy liked Hope’s yielding nature. She let her do what she wanted with the kiss. Hope’s eyes were closed like Steffy thought they would be she quickly coated two fingers with lube slipped her leg in between Hope’s and started to finger Hope. 

Hope’s eyes opened when she felt Steffy’s fingers in her. Steffy’s thumb had Hope moaning hard into the kiss. Steffy was rubbing Hope’s clit driving her wild. She made Hope cum so quick, it shocked Hope the kind of efficiency that Steffy had. 

Steffy gave her a few more kisses before turning off the lights for bed. They cuddled a little bit in the afterglow of their orgasms. 

When Steffy woke up, Hope was wrapped around her like an octopus and it made her laugh a little. She could put in her rolodex that Hope was a tactile person. 

Hope woke up a few minutes after Steffy, possibly from the cell phone glare from Steffy’s phone. Hope woke up forgetting where she was for a nanosecond. She thought she had a random and vivid sex dream about Steffy but when she woke up, she was cuddled in Steffy’s arms. 

Hope could only see Steffy’s profile which was enough. She gave Steffy a kiss on the cheek in reference to the good morning she was having. 

“Looks like we are both up for the day. Is there anything special you want to do today?”

It made Hope happy that Steffy asked her what she wanted to do. She didn’t get to do much of this kind of stuff with Liam or Wyatt. 

“I don’t know… You said when you fucked me to call you Stephanie. I only got a little sample of Stephanie. I think I want all of her.” Hope never remembered a moment in her life that she was this bold. 

“You think or you know…”

“I know…”

“Good… I’ll fuck you better than anyone has before. You want to go get some supplies?”

Hope became heated from Steffy’s confidence.

“Okay Stephanie… where would we get these supplies?”

“There’s a sex shop near us. We can go see what they have and if it’s good enough for us. I hope that they have a strap I like.”

“What’s a strap?”

“It’s what I will use to make you see how useless most men’s dicks are… of course if you’re in the mood for it.” Hope surmised that it would be some kind of simulated penis. It made her intrigued… imagining how Steffy would fuck her in a way similar to Liam or Wyatt… 

They got ready for the day and took a walk around Rome to have a little fun. When they got to the sex shop, Hope lost her nerve. She didn’t want to go into it anymore because she was a little embarrassed. Steffy told her it was nothing to be embarrassed about. It was going to be fun and they would be doing it together. Seeking out their mutual pleasure. 

The outfit in the window is what made Hope want to stay outside but when they got inside Steffy told her they were going to go for toys. 

Steffy laughed at Hope thinking they were going to buy tacky lingerie. If she was going to be impressing anyone with lingerie it would be from her own lingerie line… duh…


	6. Chapter 6

Hope was new to the toys, she was derepressing her sex life, so she was a novice to this stuff. Steffy had to explain most of it. When the bill was rung up, it was surprising to Hope that everything they were getting totaled to a thousand euros. Steffy didn’t even bat an eyelash.

She guessed the good sex toys were investments. Hope thought it had to be because Steffy bought a dildo that was five hundred bucks, but it claimed it felt like as close as you could get to a real dick. They dropped off their new toys in their hotel room and went back into the city.

Hope told her… she wasn’t sure what to refer to Steffy as yet… but she told Steffy that she wanted to go to St. Peter’s Square and then the Sistine Chapel.

It was a marvel to see beautiful architecture and art on display. Steffy told her that she needed to use the bathroom. When they got inside the way Steffy looked at Hope had the younger woman spooked.

Steffy pushed Hope into a stall and went into her bag and pulled out a travel size bottle of lube. Hope looked at Steffy like she was crazy but pulled down her underwear with a quickness and Steffy’s lubed fingers had her in danger of screaming. It felt so good, it was hard to keep quiet. When she came, she bit Steffy’s shoulder to keep from screaming.

“That hurt… but you can make it up to me...” Steffy was serious as a contract when she opened her legs.

Hope got on her knees and thought this was as the most blasphemous thing but the prospect of making Steffy happy overrode her good sense.

It felt like the longest four minutes of her life, but she made Steffy cum. Her knees hurt from the tile floor, but she would have done it again.

“Come here.” Steffy said in a caressing manner like the siren she was.

When Hope did, Steffy gave her a kiss and tasted herself on Hope’s tongue. She licked Hope’s tongue with her own savoring her taste.

After freshening up the ladies left the bathroom, Steffy just strolled out like Naomi Campbell while Hope pretended to act nonchalant. She felt like it was written on her forehead.

“I can’t believe we just did that!” Hope felt like she was sweating.

“It’s okay babe, I’m Catholic.” Steffy said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world and walked back to a group pretending to care about what the guide said.

Hope was just dazed by her lover’s response but shook her head and smiled and returned to Steffy’s side.

After the tour was done, Hope couldn’t wait to get out of the Vatican, she still felt like at some point someone would look at her and just know what she did.

Steffy took Hope to a restaurant to help ease her worries. Food always helped her nerves so why not Hope’s… After they ate, they walked around Rome and watched the sun go down their hands found each other’s every so often. Intertwining, they really did feel like lovers on a romantic holiday It was something so ordinary, but it made the ladies appreciate such a beautiful sight and with each other.

When they made their way back to the hotel… they recapped their day to each other like they weren’t together all day.

“I think I’m going to go take a shower…” Steffy was trying to be suggestive…

“Okay honey, I’ll go after…”

“Or we could just conserve water and take one together.” Steffy was going to have to teach Hope to read between the lines better.

Her eyebrows hugged her forehead, Hope was stunned.

“Oh… I’d love that…”

When they took a shower, it was really what Steffy meant. She took the care to soap and rinse Hope’s body.

Hope had taken a shower with a lover before, but it was code just having sex in the shower. Steffy lathered every bit of her body and took time to clean her privates with her bare hands. It was probably the most intimate thing Hope had ever done. Steffy cleaned her all of her in a loving but perfunctory manner. She didn’t dip a finger into her when she cleaned her down there.

She did the same to Steffy, but it was hard for her to touch Steffy everywhere but not going further.

Steffy told Hope to get comfortable in the bed. She left to start sanitizing all of their toys.

It made Hope excited at the thought of them being used.

Steffy had slipped on the strap-on after she sanitized it. She put on the robe ever her negligee, so it wasn’t overly apparent that she had the strap-on… on.

When she got out, she was welcomed with a sight that made her whole heart beam. Hope was on the bed waiting for her… eager. 

Steffy wasted no time, she got in the bed and kissed Hope as tender as she could muster. It left both ladies smiling, Steffy kissed and playfully bit Hope’s neck. She made her way down Hope’s body…

Hope remembered exactly who was doing this to her.

“Stephanie…” Hope said hoarsely. Steffy made love to her breast which left her stripped of her voice.

Steffy knew it was Hope’s first time doing anything with a woman, so it was imperative for her to make it as comfortable and be as loving as possible.

“Baby, cup those beautiful breasts with your hands… play with them.” Steffy’s voice was soft and it made Hope so happy.

She freely teased her nipple as Steffy kissed her navel. It coaxed a moan out of Hope.

She went farther south and reached Hope’s pussy. She rubbed and massaged it. She opened the bottle of lube and squirted a good amount onto her hand and warmed it up by rubbing her hands together.

Steffy made her tongue flat and licked Hope’s pussy bottom to top that had Hope’s eyes go from shut tight to wide open.

“Oh my god, Stephanie… please honey…” Hope didn’t know what she was asking for, but it didn’t matter. Steffy knew what she needed. Steffy was eating Hope out like she missed meals. She starting fucking Hope with her tongue and had Hope shaking her head side to side. “It feels so good… shit! Stephanie! Yes, fuck me with your tongue… mmph…” Hope bit down on her lip hard as she pinched her nips harder. Steffy replaced her tongue with her finger and it had Hope going wild bucking her hips like a colt. Steffy used her other hand to push Hope’s labia upward and apart. Steffy smiled as she saw Hope’s clit begging to be licked. So that’s what she did. “Honey…” Hope whined, but Steffy was relentless. She sucked on Hope’s clit hard and hummed and moved her mouth left to right and kept fucking Hope with her fingers. “Stephanie… fuck… you’re going to make cum. Fuck… mmm… Fuck… Stephanie!” Hope shouted Steffy’s name as she came. Steffy removed her fingers but kept laving Hope’s clit keep the flame of Hope’s orgasm from completely dimming.

Hope felt like she was on cloud 9. She only had two partners before do this to her and they didn’t even compare.

When she was able to open her eyes, she saw Steffy leaning on the bed staring at her.

“How do you want to take this?” Steffy pointed to the fake dick strapped to her.

Hope wanted to be missionary so she could kiss and hug Steffy, but she surprised the both of them when she got on all fours waiting to be fucked doggy.

Steffy was happy to see Hope being bolder and more confident in bed. She knew it was her first time with a woman, but it wasn’t her first time, having sex with a dick.

She got behind Hope made her put her knees together and arch her back more. Steffy played with Hope to get her more comfortable with the idea. She put the head in, Hope thought she could just cum from that. She kept thinking to herself Steffy was fucking her.

When Steffy got more into Hope, she felt a little resistance and stopped.

“Baby, it’s okay… just relax. I’m not going to rush or shove anything. Let yourself go so you can adjust. I know it’s thicker than what you’re used too but I’m going to make you feel good okay…”

“Okay…” It made her feel stretched more than she has been. She can’t remember her pussy taking something as thick, so it made her a little nervous.

“Hope… baby… I want you to play with your clit. It will help calm you.” Steffy made sure to speak in a reassuring manner. She wanted Hope to enjoy this as much as she was.

Hope started to play with herself and it made her more receptive to taking more of the dildo.

Steffy started a nice rhythm and Hope’s middle finger was glued to her clit. The sensations were getting overwhelming. She started to think of all the time she was spending with Steffy and everything became even more overwhelming.

She was thinking of everything they got to do together, the conversations, the laughter. All of it ran through her mind as Steffy was fucking her.

Steffy kept saying Hope’s name but got no answer and did the first thing that came to mind and smacked her ass. She was fucking Hope real good. The sound of flesh hitting flesh as she was fucking Hope was music to her ears.

The crack reverberates around the room and awakens Hope from her cataloguing everything in her mind. No one ever smacked her in bed, she felt kinky because she liked it, it made her smile. She smiled even wider when she remembered who was doing this.

“Steffy?”

“Yes baby…”

“Stop, I need to see you while you fuck me…” Hope couldn’t do it like this anymore. Some other time but not right now. Everything in her felt so intense at the moment she needed to see Steffy.

Steffy listened immediately and pulled out. The squelching sound of removing the dildo from Hope was so beautiful. Steffy loved the sound of Hope’s wet pussy, but she was more excited to put it back in.

Hope turned around and lied down waiting for her lover to continue again.

Steffy dragged the head of the dick all of Hope’s pussy before slowly putting it back in.

“I needed to see you’re beautiful face, Stephanie. I love this… I love you Stephanie.” Hope was high on pheromones professing love.

It made Steffy stutter in her stroke. Steffy kept fucking her a little more frantic since the admission. She let the memories from their time together flow into her mind. How carefree she was and how long it’s been since she’s been that way and she smiles. Steffy put a smile on her face again, she felt alive…

“I love you too baby. I love you Hope.” Steffy was shocked but not… it was easy to fall for someone who trusts you and looks at you with devotion. Easy when you have an easy vibe, able to laugh together and walk in complete silence but it still feels like you are still having a conversation.

Steffy made it her mission to fuck Hope so good she cums... She got closer to Hope. Pressing their bodies together. Breast touching breast, chest touching chest. Hope wrapped her legs around her waist. Hope’s feet were digging into her ass probably trying to make the dildo go in deeper.

“I love you Stephanie… Oh my god… I love you… I… love… you…” Hope couldn’t stop saying it. It spurred Steffy. In between kisses from Steffy, Hope just kept saying her name like a prayer.

Steffy was fucking her now with no rhyme or reason. The strapon was stimulating her pussy as well and each time Hope said I love you combined with the sensations the strapon on could produce, Steffy knew that she would be coming soon. Her thumb was firmly planted on Hope’s clit determined to make her come.

“I’m going to make you cum so good… I swear to god.”

“Stephanie… it’s happen— Unh!” Hope couldn’t even finish her sentence she was coming so hard.

Steffy had pulled out after a few more strokes. She ended up climaxing herself, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the one that went through Hope.

Hope opened her eyes in Steffy’s arms but no dick in her. Last thing she remembered was telling Steffy that she was about to cum.

“Baby… you passed out.” Steffy supplied the answer that Hope was looking for but didn’t ask.

“Well I guess that can actually happen.”

“Yeah, when it’s that good… Did you enjoy yourself?”

“So much, I’ve never come like that in my life.”

“Well it’s nice, to get fucked like that from someone you love. It can make it so much more explosive.”

Hope smiled when Steffy said love.

“Yeah definitely. I can learn to do that to you if you teach me.” Hope was eager to reciprocate for her lover.

“I’ll teach you but that could be another night. Right now let’s just focus on us and some cuddles.”

Steffy knew Hope was a tactile person but the smile she was met with, she wasn’t ready for. It made her heart skip a beat.

“I love you Stephanie, for real. I know it came out during sex, but I mean it.”

“I meant it too… then and now. I love you and nothing will change that.”

The resoluteness sends an uncomfortable sense of want to Hope’s core. She loves it when Steffy turns her on, but her pussy is too sore to handle anything else.

“I love you too, I could make you feel good too.”

“Baby don’t worry I climaxed too from the strapon. Every time I took a stroke it stimulated my clit. Even when I was taking care of you… I was taking care of me too.”

Hope only smiled and gave Steffy a kiss. She fell asleep in Steffy’s arms. Through the night they separate but their bodies don’t stray far from the other.


	7. Chapter 7

Each new day was a new day to explore Italy. Steffy had extensive knowledge of the city and was able to really show Hope it’s beauty. It seemed like their fun just never ended. Steffy was just being herself and it seemed to liven Hope again. She didn’t spend each day going over the loss of her son. Sometimes she felt guilty for not thinking about it for every minute but when Steffy smiled at her, she realized the best thing she could do was pick up the pieces and actually try and live her life. She loved her baby and she slowly stopped punishing herself when she realized that she could love her child and still believe she deserved happiness.

Steffy felt on top of the world. It was feeling the easiness of love. She was tired of love that was laced with pain. Fighting for a new day felt so blasé now. She was so weary of the struggling… being sold that sorry bag of tricks. She forgot what it was like to breath and this relationship she found herself again. She had asked her dad for an extended holiday. He said it wasn’t a problem, but she still needed to fulfill on her accounts which made Steffy roll her eyes.

She was always going to fulfill their accounts. She told Hope that she would have to do some traveling which seemed to bum out her girlfriend until Steffy mentioned that Hope was coming too. They started to make their own adventures while Steffy had to secure her accounts. Traveling through so many cities, enjoying so many different food dishes, sometimes eating it off each other. The bliss they felt last nearly a year until Steffy received a call.

“Hey granddad… Yeah I’m free…” Steffy really wasn’t free. She was back in Rome it was really late with the time difference. She had woken up from the loud ringing from her phone. She had long gotten used to it because buyers called her all the times regardless of what time zone she was in. Hope had gotten used to it too, she could sleep through the loud ringing.

Steffy just listened to Eric exclaim how proud he was of her with her bringing so many purchase orders and new accounts into the fold. He thought like her father and thought it was too grand of a number to reach in such a short time but Steffy had a turnaround time unlike anyone he had seen since his late wife.

He told her that her tenacity and sheer will had elevated the company in the face of adversity. He decided to make a hard choice, but it was for the good of the company. He felt it was time for him to have a more hands-off approach to the company and to trust in it’s people. It was when he made mention that her securing all these new accounts and purchase orders ensured that they would be running in the black which was something he didn’t think was possible after the year they had.

Steffy was proud to hear her grandfather handing down heavy-handed praise. She couldn’t get it from her grandmother, so sometimes she felt like he was doing it for the both of them. Eric shocked Steffy when he asked her to be the CEO of the company.

Steffy shot up in the bed. Even though she did a good job and has been for years, she didn’t expect her grandfather to do anything like this. It made her worried because she didn’t want to take away her father’s place.

When Steffy told her grandfather thank you, it was a little shaky. Eric seemed to catch on, he told her that he had a long conversation with Ridge, and it was her father that suggested her.

Both Eric and Ridge felt that Steffy brought vitality, hustle, grit and new outlook that would take Forrester Creations to new audiences which was always their ultimate goal.

Ridge was still her boss as the chairman of the board, but he was going to give her free reign. Steffy was crying in happiness.

She told Eric that she was actually sleeping before and this was overwhelming, but she was so appreciative and proud of even being considered. Her grandfather did feel bad for waking her in her sleep, but he was just so excited to share the news.

Steffy was too excited to go back to sleep. She tried her best, but nothing seemed to help her get back to sleep. She kept smiling until the sun came up. When Hope woke up, she saw Steffy’s good mood and it seemed to make her not want to go back to sleep.

Steffy turned toward Hope and didn’t even say anything. Her happiness led to Hope getting eaten out before she even got out the bed. The orgasm woke Hope up, she swore she wouldn’t even need coffee.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Hope surely wasn’t complaining. She didn’t mind the side effects of Steffy’s bright dispositions, being given a generous orgasm was something she would sign up for anytime.

“I got a call from my grandfather.”

Hope softened when Steffy made mention of Eric. He was such a kind man. She knew her girlfriend was close to her grandparents. Hope still had some guilt, leaving Forrester Creations high and dry after the significant investment into her line. Her losing her baby was one the reasons she left but even when she was there, she wasn’t pulling her weight. She wished she took her work more seriously before. Watching her girlfriend wheel and deal over the near year they have been together with so many people trying to add revenue for the company showed her how shrewd and ruthless her girlfriend could be.

“Oh yeah, it must have been a great call. I know you love him so much.”

“It was, he had a lot of things to say… I have some news.” Steffy could barely contain herself.

“What is it? You look so excited…” Hope was starting to feel excited from Steffy’s demeanor.

“Yeah I am. He called me to offer me the CEO position!”

Hope felt like cold water was doused on her. The only thing she could think of was LA. She didn’t want to return to LA because they had a life together and they had it here.

“I’m so happy for you honey.” Hope tried to muster as much joy in her voice, but it fell flat.

“You don’t sound happy…” Steffy knew Hope’s happy responses from her bullshit ones.

“I am happy for you! It’s just that we’re happy here…”

“I know but Hope we can be happy anywhere. We’ve gone to so many different cities… Baby we don’t have to live in LA. We could live in New York, we could live in Chicago…” Steffy tried to give alternatives to going home. She knew she had to live in the states for the CEO position, but she knew she could convince her grandfather to have satellite offices.

“Why can’t you do it here?! I’ve seen you work… Please honey I don’t want to leave.” Hope’s eyes started watering but Steffy wasn’t going to be swayed, she knew her father and grandfather.

“Hope, even as good as I am… I can’t do it here. The time zones don’t work, it would mess me up trying. Baby please try and understand, I love you and I know we are happy here but as long as we are together… that’s where our home is.” Steffy was starting to get emotional because she didn’t want to trade her career for her girlfriend or vice versa.

“I’m not ready! I don’t want to go back. My life isn’t there anymore.”

“Your life is with me Hope and my life is with you. I’m telling you we can settle somewhere else and be happy.”

“No!” Hope was scared… she didn’t want scrutiny… she already made the tabloids because of Liam and Wyatt. People wanted to see what the daughter of Brooke Logan was doing. Her relationship with Steffy would be under the microscope too. It was one of the reasons she left.

“Hope, this is everything I ever worked for. I can’t pass it up… you know that… why are you doing this?”

“The press… they make mean stories about me and it made even simple things like grocery shopping difficult.”

Steffy eyebrows furrowed now. She took it wrong…

“Is it because it’s me?” The most glaring difference between Steffy and Hope’s exes was that Steffy was a woman.

“No! I love you so much Steffy… you’re the love of my life! It’s just that the tabloids followed me around and made terrible stories about me… a lot of them were Bill since he hates me and hates me even more for being with his sons. He knows that words hurt me and owns so much of those trashy magazines. I was always bombarded with them. I just want to live my life and he doesn’t bother me here.” Now that Hope was away from his sons, he didn’t care what she did.

“Hope, I get that being in the tabloids isn’t fun. I totally get that, but you really shouldn’t read them, they are garbage, they don’t know the truth. We can live in a more calming part of any city where they aren’t paparazzi heavy. We don’t even need to live in LA. Hope please think about this.” Steffy was trying to be accommodating as she could. She knows that Bill wrote some pretty nasty things about Hope.

“All right I’ll think about it.” Hope was sincere… she really did have to weigh the options. She’s in love with Steffy but it did become too much to stay there.

They decided that they wouldn’t talk about it anymore and just enjoy their day. It was always in the back of their minds, but they knew that they would have to hold onto to every moment.

The kisses became more desperate… their lovemaking was even more satisfying than usual. The ladies treated each time as if it were the last until it was.

Steffy had to make a decision and she chose her career. She had been waiting years and grinding. She put in the work and it paid off. She told her grandfather that she would be coming home to start her new role within the company.

She couldn’t get Hope to budge and it pained her to say goodbye.

Hope felt like she was breaking when she was saying goodbye to Steffy at the airport. Hope had too much hurt in her heart to return home still and it pained her to say goodbye to Steffy in more ways than one.

It felt like their chapter was ending… when Steffy walked onto her plane, they both felt their hearts break. Steffy made a promise to Hope that she would take care of her. Their room was paid for until Hope wanted to leave, Paolo would be her guide until she didn’t want him to be.

Even when they weren’t together, Hope saw Steffy’s nature.

Hope had stayed in Italy for a couple more months after Steffy left and then went to New Orleans to live with Bridget and her family. She still wasn’t ready to go back home.

Steffy decided it was best to move on. Paolo told her that Hope had left and at first Steffy was excited because she thought it meant that Hope was coming back to LA for her but as the days passed, Steffy started to see the writing on the wall. She hoped wherever Hope was that her ex was happy. She moved on and thought maybe she could find happiness again.

It wasn’t until Steffy had married Liam again did she see just how bad some of the articles were about Hope.

She had asked Wyatt about it and he got sad when the subject of his son came up. Wyatt wondered why Steffy wanted to know about his child with Hope after they had gotten divorced. Steffy didn’t mention her relationship with Hope only telling Wyatt that those articles must have been troubling for him to go through after everything.

Wyatt was a wealth of knowledge for Steffy because Hope was not ready to talk about that time in her life. Steffy also didn’t try to push because she didn’t want make Hope distraught, but she wanted answers about why her relationship failed even if she was with Liam now.

Wyatt explained that the articles about Hope, got to her. She didn’t like it when people belittled her and Bill used multiple magazines to hurt her and only stopped when he learned of her pregnancy. Wyatt recounted how Hope was when they lost the baby. She blamed him but he knew that she was only doing it because she needed someone to lash out too.

She filed for divorce and left town leaving him devastated. He was mad at her for throwing away their marriage until he picked up his iPad and he opened Safari to see the most disgusting headline he ever encountered in his life.

_“There was no HOPE in delivering Spencer heir...”_

It horrified Steffy when Wyatt said that was a headline form a tabloid. It wasn’t a Spencer affiliated brand, but the ruthlessness of Bill Spencer’s attacks led to other tabloids doing the same. She could understand more why Hope was so adamant about not coming back. Some sleazy rag said something so vile, Steffy had no words. She wished that Hope would have opened up with her more, but she could also see why Hope didn’t want to open the wounds of losing her child. That kind of bullying was just beyond cruel. The disgusting headlines only compounded that.

Steffy knew if Hope had told her that they could have figured something out that worked for the both of them. She wished they communicated better because she knows in her heart that she would still be with Hope. Here she was fighting for a marriage where her husband was out here trying to rescue yet another woman.

When Liam confessed, her heart dropped, she knew that she was done. She only had regret in her heart for the love she had for Hope, she should have not just given up because it was clear to her, Liam never deserved her and he kept proving it, she was just done with empty promises. She was done with the gaslighting and emotional abuse.


	8. Chapter 8

Steffy was feeling on top of the world because of their reunion. They had a lot of catching up to do, but Steffy never told Hope about what Wyatt told her. Everything was going so well as if time hadn’t passed them by… Their giggles filled the room with an infectious energy that only made them giggle some more. This is what Steffy mist, being able to love and feel free. Her life was a little complicated right now of being with Hope only made her feel like her life had more clarity… More pizzazz and definitely more laughter.

Steffy decided that she was going to work home for the interim, to her there was no reason to go to the office when she could do everything in the privacy of her own home. It also gave her time to reconnect with hope… And they did a lot of reconnecting.

It was going to be a very ambitious quarter at Forrester Creations, so even though Hope had made her homecoming Stephanie needed to keep her head in the game and make sure that FC came out on top. Hope was a little disappointed that there morning sex session didn’t turn into a marathon she knew that that it was all business when it came to FC. Steffy told her that she would need to work for a solid six hours but they could reconvene for lunch and maybe some quick extracurricular before she went back to work. .

Hope looked at her with barely concealed disappointment but she thought to herself, that she could use this time to visit Aunt Donna and tell her thank you for telling her where Steffy was. The last two weeks they got to spend together had brought happiness back to her life. Her broken heart was no more since she was back with the love of her life.

Steffy thought to herself it was good that Hope was gone because it meant that so was the temptation or so she thought. Not even ten minutes after Hope left, she got a picture from her girlfriend pinching her nipples and biting her lips with the caption ‘Wish you were here…’.

Steffy just replied with her own text with a picture of her tongue sticking out. ‘I’m going to make you pay for that with this…’

She went back to work, trying to put all the finishing details on some rollouts they have on the horizon when she started feeling queasy. Her stomach bubbled so bad that before she knew it she was throwing up into the trash can. She took out the bag and went to the trash chute on her floor and threw it away.

She went back to work but the feeling of nausea was there and it kept distracting her. At first she just thought it was stress from work but then her mind told her that she could be pregnant.

Steffy got up and went to the nearest Rite Aid. She hadn’t done this since the last time she was pregnant and it was nerve wracking for her because it made her worried. On one hand she would love to have a baby but it would be Liam’s child too and he was going to make her life miserable. She just got back Hope… what would that mean for their relationship? Would this child be something she couldn’t bear because of the loss of her own child…?

The whole drive back was one filled with trepidation for her future. She decided if she was pregnant then it would be the end of it. She wanted to have a child, she was going to go the adoption route because her doctor said her treatment was a success but there was still no guarantees when it came to babies until they are actually born.

Steffy peed on three different sticks and she felt so anxious waiting for the results. She kept reading each box as if the time it took for the test to be done was going to change.

“You got this… Just pick it up and see what it says…” Steffy said to herself trying to psych herself up.

When she picked up the tests and looked all of them were positive and Steffy could feel the tears running down her cheeks. She didn’t know that she could feel this kind of happiness again.

It was a little complicated because this child was with Liam but she was going to figure it out. She and Hope could raise the baby together and have their own little family. It made Steffy smile to think about. They were going to have a baby which meant things would change but it wasn’t a bad thing. This was a good kind of change because she wanted this for so long and it wasn’t until the doctor told her that it was unlikely for her to carry a child to term that she really felt a sense of brokenness. That changed but she knew was still high risk so she needed to be careful with this pregnancy. 

As much as she didn’t want to she knew she needed to tell Liam that she was pregnant. The last thing she wanted was to be attached to him and a child is for life but he was going to find out sooner or later.

So she went to Spencer knowing that he was working there today. She went to his office hoping that it would be a quick trip but she didn’t find Liam there and she thought maybe he was in Bill’s office having yet another fight.

As she made her way to Bill’s office, she saw Justin and gave him a smile but he was on the phone with someone. He gave her a wave and kept walking saying he really did need to see ‘Charlie’.

When she got into Bill’s office, she only saw the man himself and wondered where Liam was.

“Hey Bill, where’s Liam?” Steffy asked with a rushed tone because she really couldn’t be there all day. She had plans with Hope and needed to tell her the news

“I have no clue where my lazy, ungrateful son is. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine but I need to speak with Liam and it’s kind of urgent so if you don’t mind…” her tone was clipped, Steffy had no time for the back and forth with Bill.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

“No its something that I need to speak with Liam about.”

“Well if you find wherever that Spectra girl is, you’ll probably find Liam there.” Bill said hoping to rile Steffy up and continue his bid to get her back. This time was their time.

“Ugh, are you even kidding right now?! I need to talk to him about a custody plan and he’s running to Sally’s rescue yet again.”

Bill furrows his eyebrows and a plan started to form in his head. He hated coming up with impulsive plans but it was the only play he had.

“You’re telling me you’re pregnant?” Bill dropped the question in an innocent manner but Steffy knew how he operated. He spied her narrow eyes and she had a sour look on her face.

“Yes and I need to sit down with Liam to discuss a visitation plan…”

“You’re not planning in staying with him?”

“No… he’s a cheating piece of shit and he is still with the one he cheated with. No fucking thanks.” Steffy wasn’t jealous, she was mad because Liam was begging her to give him a chance but he was trying to play her for a fool but she didn’t care what he did because she was officially separated from him and waiting for the state to give her the divorce she wanted. She was moving ahead with her life.

“You will get no arguments from me. Sally is an annoying gnat who needs to be squashed.” His words didn’t sit well with Steffy because Bill just almost killed the woman. She didn’t like Sally Spectra but she would never wish anything bad happen to her. “I think you should pause on the conversation with Liam though. One of my paparazzi guys spotted Hope and you know when Liam finds out she’s here. He will have two women to shed his tears too. But you need to get a test…”

Steffy kept her face blank when Bill mentioned that he knew Hope was back in town. She was going to give Hope a heads up as soon as she was done there.

“I already know that I’m pregnant. I have an appointment to start my pre-natal plan but I don’t know why I’m telling you that. It isn’t any of your business…”

“The hell its not. You need to get a test for paternity. That child you are carrying could be mine!” Bill made his play, he registered the confused shock on Steffy’s face and it morphed into anger.

“Are you fucking crazy?! I did not have sex with you!” Steffy was livid, she had promised grandma that she wouldn’t sleep with Bill and she intended to keep that promise even though Bill still flirted with her even if she was married to his son.

“That night we were drinking Steffy, one thing led to another and it kind of just happened. I’m not proud of the fact I slept with my son’s wife, but we always had that connection. I had a Spencer emergency so I couldn’t stay with you but it happened.” Bill thought by the time Steffy got a paternity test and the results that he could turn her against Liam and make a play for himself.

“No I didn’t! You’re fucking lying. I would never…” Steffy couldn’t remember anything remotely close to what Bill was saying. She only remembered drinking then going to sleep but she was drinking… Bill looked at her with a serious face and she felt horror rush upon her.

“And yet… Steffy, we always had that connection and this could be our chance. No one is in our way. You deserve someone who puts you first, loves you and only you. I can give you that, the passion, the drive… that’s me and you. I’ll be the match to your flame.” He was in it for the win now, there was no turning back now. He could raise his grandchildren as his own. He could finally mold an heir worthy of his name. All of his sons didn’t have the killer instinct. He loved them sure but he was making plans for Steffy’s child.

“I need to go…” Steffy had to get out of there. She felt like the walls were closing in.

Bill sent her a text asking her to let him know where to send his sample. The nausea started to set itself in the pit of her stomach and it had nothing to do with the baby.

Did she actually have sex with Bill? She had never had a night where she didn’t know what happened when she was drinking. She never overdid it to but she was also so mad that night.

She sent Hope the text, telling her that Bill’s people knew she was in town and to be careful. If Bill knew she was there then it would only be a matter of time before Brooke did too.

She went home to the condo and waited for Hope. She had to call someone to calm her nerves… Hope took longer than she thought to come home so she ended up talking to Luisa, Marcus and Lily Bee. They all told her the same thing, she had to calm down because nothing could be done right now.

It was nice to hear the reassuring voices of people she trusted to have her back. She was about to call Bridget and freak out to her but Hope came back and used her key.

“Hey honey, thanks for the heads up about the paparazzi guy. I took a longer way to get home. I think maybe I should use Uber or Lyft in the meantime just to be safe.

“Yeah that’s a good idea. We need to talk…”

Hope looked at Steffy wondering what they needed to talk about. She didn’t like the worry she could sense in Steffy’s voice. Her girlfriend sounded cagey and looked anxious.

“It sounds like I should sit down for whatever it is. Does it have to do with Bill finding out that I’m here?” Hope asked wondering what had Steffy freaked out. She thought about her day and remembered she sent a topless photo to Steffy. “Steffy, you’re freaking me out, did they get a photo of me topless…” Hope started to feel anxious at the thought of being in a tabloid again. She started to feel the bits of anxiousness build.

“No, I don’t think so baby. Bill didn’t say that, just that someone spotted you. I have some other news. I didn’t feel too good today and I threw up…”

“Well maybe you should slow down on the work. You could always delegate more. I know you’re a perfectionist but you hire the best people, they can do more…” Hope knows how Steffy works. It’s almost like she’s a machine but she was also human and wished her girlfriend would remember that more.

“I work just fine, I didn’t feel well and I went to the drugstore and bought a pregnancy test. It came back positive…”

The room was silent for a long while. Steffy was trying to gauge what Hope was thinking. These were one of the few times that she couldn’t tell.

“Well, it’s a little complicated but we’ll just have to raise the baby with Liam, instead of just you and me but this is so exciting. We’re going to have a baby.” Hope briefly thought about her son but her moment of sadness was replaced with the thought if being a parent with Steffy.

“It’s more than a little complicated. I was talking to Bill today.”

Just hearing his name was enough to make Hope feel disgust. She hated Bill with everything she had. Even being in the same zip code was too close of a distance for her. She was only here because she loves Steffy. At least he would be in a distant orbit away from her.

“What did the demon say?”

“He said that I needed to get a test to confirm things…”

“Confirm what, you already took the test… you’re pregnant.” Hope wondered why Bill would say that. She didn’t take him for dumb, if anything he was an evil genius like a cartoon villain.

“For paternity…” Steffy choked even saying it.

When she looked up to see Hope’s reaction, she saw a stone face and wondered what was going through her head.

Hope got up from the couch running her hand through her hair. She couldn’t believe what Steffy just said. Her hearing must have been wrong because Steffy said she needed a paternity test to determine if Liam was the father and the other person could be Bill. The same Bill who set things in motion. The same one who gave her hell just because he could. Her body was repulsed at the fact that Steffy could sleep with a monster. It made her want to throw everything in sight. Why the hell would Steffy even sleep with him?! Her mind kept angrily screaming the same question.

“How in the world could Bill be a possibility?!” Hope screamed with angry tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know how it happened! I was drinking because I was upset that Liam cheated on me with Sally…” Steffy was trying to defend herself even though she wasn’t sure how it happened either.

“NO! That man has always had an unhealthy obsession with you and you what… went to him in your time of ‘need’ give me a fucking break Steffy! You fucked Bill. Was it some sort of revenge to Liam?! Hmm you cheat on me so I fuck your dad. What kind of mindset is that?!” Hope starting hurling hurtful things to Steffy because she wanted her to hurt.

“I didn’t expect to have sex with Bill! I was committed to my marriage, i--"

“Says the woman with two possible candidates for the paternity of their child. Did you expect me to help you raise Bill’s child?!” Hope was seething at the thought.

“It may not even be Bill’s child! Stop screaming at me!” Steffy was starting to get livid and the last thing she wanted to do was hurl any insults at Hope and really hurt the woman’s feelings.

“There’s a 50% chance that it’s Bill’s… don’t give me that bullshit Steffy! It probably is his. He has children that pop up every couple of years so we know his sperm is potent. God it sounds so disgusting to say…”

“We can get through it Hope, no matter who the father is as long as we are together—”

“Together?! You think I want to be with you after this?! Steffy the pregnancy brain must be hitting you early because there’s no way I’m putting myself through this. He almost killed Sally and Liam because he wanted the Spectra land, what the hell do you think he would do to me?!”

“Hope, we love each other, we are finally getting a shot at a future that we have always wanted...”

“You can’t even deny it, he is psychotic. I can’t… before he can remove me from the picture I have to bow out… I’m not doing this. Fuck that and fuck you Steffy. Bill has unrepentantly ruin my life and I have no desire to be in his company ever! Have a nice life with him.” Hope had dark thoughts that invaded her mind.

She saw Steffy crying as she packed her things. Steffy was trying to make her see how they could be together but Hope wasn’t in the mood to hear any of it. She kept thinking about all the dead baby stories and it fueled her anger even more. She started to feel her rage bottle up again.

“Hope, you don’t mean that. I don’t even remember having sex with him! I don’t want to be with him! I’m with you!”

“Now… you’re not. We are nothing. It was a mistake to come here and even more of a mistake to start anything back up…”

“You do not mean that. You have never been with anyone who loved you more than me… understood you more than me…” Steffy didn’t think that she would have to fight to keep her relationship alive. She was trying to be truthful and honest.

“I do mean it. This whole thing was a mistake. We had a good thing going in Europe, but our lives are different here and I wish it was different Steffy I do but anything that involves Bill means people on the periphery get hurt and I would be in the line of fire.”

“Bullshit, you hopped on the first flight to LA to be with me and now you are backtracking. I don’t believe you Hope. If you don’t want to be with me… fine but no need to be a liar…” Steffy was starting to get livid but she had to keep her stress levels down.

“I’ll admit that and it was a mistake, you fucking Bill is disgusting but Liam kissed Sally so you up the ante and fuck his father? Are you kidding?! I’m saving myself in the long run because what happens when we ever get into a fight. You are going to go to the person most obsessed with you… I’m going to save myself from you breaking my heart… You know if it’s his that he is going to do a full-court press for you. He is relentless like gonorrhea…”

Hope rushed out of the condo, slamming the door. It made Steffy upset but mostly hurt. Arguing with Hope wasn’t anything she ever liked doing but it was like Hope didn’t even hear her. She kept trying to tell her girlfriend… ex-girlfriend that she didn’t remember that part of the night. She couldn’t give consent to Bill or even remember doing it in the first place and it made her feel cold. She felt so alone with this news. She had no clue what she was going to do…


	9. Chapter 9

Hope cried in her Enterprise Rent-a-Car, she came here to start her life but life kept surprising her. She felt such a deep anger when Steffy said that she might be carrying Bill’s baby.

The same Bill that made her tabloid fodder in the first place, he had paparazzi follow her… hounded her incessantly just to make her break up with his sons. She wasn’t the right woman for his sons… she didn’t even know what that meant. It wasn’t like she was someone who went out of their way to be a criminal. She was just a young woman trying to have meaningful relationships and his meddling brought nothing but strife and heartache into her life. His bullying led others into bullying her. People made fun of her with no regard to how it affected her mental health.

She had so much pent-up anxiety from thinking that someone was always there waiting to take a picture of her or make a nasty headline about her. She couldn’t have a private life because of Bill.

She thought it was absolutely sick that Bill and Steffy slept together and even worse that he could be the father of Steffy’s child. Why did Bill have to drag Steffy down? When was enough for him? He made her aunt look like a fool… got her mother roped into it but that was only a matter of time…

Hope then thought about her mother, she came to LA ready to actively ignore Brooke and have her life with Steffy uninterrupted but so much happened in the span of a day. She left the house feeling like nothing could get her down and she got hit with a surprise she never could foresee.

Her girlfriend was pregnant… it was bad enough that it would have been Liam’s because he would forever be ingrained in their lives, but Bill could be the father. It made her feel so sick. This man is so vengeful… so much vengeful pride that led him to almost killing Sally and Liam.

She didn’t understand how Steffy could sleep with Bill after knowing that about him. She felt like cold water was doused on her when Steffy revealed that.

Just thinking about Steffy made her so angry because she should know better… Hope drove aimlessly through L.A., getting madder than she thought possible. A plan started to form in her head.

She felt a future with Steffy with now out of the reach… She couldn’t see anything past the simmering anger that she felt. She wanted to lash out and scream until she had no voice left. Her homecoming wasn't supposed to be like this, she thought she would come back and reclaim the life that she should have never left. Of course she felt like a fool for denying Steffy the relationship that they both wanted. She wasted so much time, after she was mad that Steffy could move on, but she was really just upset with herself. She knew that she couldn’t blame Steffy for thinking that they had no future when they had a bad breakup. Hope couldn’t see past her own hurt and it was something that she still struggled with to this day. She needed a lot of time and a lot of therapy, her therapist told her even if you meet the love of your life or have meaningful relationships, it doesn't erase the work that needs to be done on the self.

Hope worked on herself so she could be the best partner, fully engaged in a relationship, she knew that she couldn't move forward unless she resolved her past… A past that haunted her with broken dreams. She came through on the other side, but when she tried to get back to the woman she loved, that woman moved on with her life and chose a chance to be happy. It hurt Hope something terrible to see Steffy married to someone else, but what she most wanted in life was for Steffy to be happy, so she stayed away… She knows the kind of person that Steffy is… Steffy will try to make her marriage work and respect it and not just quit because someone makes a declaration of love even if it was her.

Also Hope couldn’t ever put Steffy through that kind of hell, she knew the kind of person that Steffy is, so empathetic that she wouldn't be able to feel nothing else but guilt promising someone a life, a marriage only to pull the plug because someone showed up back in their life… Hope knew that was selfish and she would never put Steffy through that. It was one of the reasons that she waited till now… The first time she tried she was too late. When she found out that Steffy was divorcing Wyatt, she took a plane ride to LA to show her that she was finally ready, ready to choose her and choose a life where they would be happy and together finally. But somehow Liam beat her to the punch, she had a breakdown, she had to call her therapist to find some way to anchor her because she really felt that her life was lost now.

That’s why when Donna told her about Steffy leaving Liam, she knew that she couldn’t let this opportunity squander. She jumped on the first flight she could and went to LA hoping that she wasn't too late this time. She felt such happiness when she got to kiss Steffy again, when she got to hug her again. She had gone so long without the one that took away the aches in her life, it was overwhelming for her, this was real, it was happening and bill derailed all of that.

It still boggles her mind, how could Bill be a possibility? He was such a horrible person and Steffy could betray her own values, her own promises to herself and be with him… this was a man who spread misery to so many people in his life unrepentantly. It was like it was a sport for him to hurt people, thriving on other people’s pain, the only reason he stopped putting terrible tabloid fodder about her, was because she happened to be carrying Wyatt's child. it had nothing to do with the fact that he as a human couldn’t see that this was painful for her, he only did it because of the proximity of the child to him. She couldn’t see how anyone could be in love with such a snake, who slithered in the grass waiting for his opportunity to indulge in his sick fantasies.

She felt so blind with her anger, but most of all she felt bitter. The life that she thought she had been building over the last couple of weeks, crumbled within a couple of hours. Here she was in LA with no real plan, the only thing she had tethering her to any kind of sanity, the only thing keeping her from having a panic attack was the need to lash out. She wanted Steffy to hurt, she knew that she was at a point of no return. Her mind was going through so many different scenarios of how she was gonna reach her goal, she was going to make Steffy feel as miserable as she felt right now. She knew if she was going to enact this plan, she was going to need reinforcements… She was going to sacrifice things she believed in to make it happen. It’s how she ended up at Brooke’s house. She was going to have to end her estrangement with her mother. Even though her mother wasn’t at Forrester anymore, she still had a good relationship with Eric because of the bonds that tie them. She was going to bring back HFTF so she could be in Steffy’s orbit again without it looking suspicious.

Hope let her darker forces run free as she took the steps to her mother’s home. She was sacrificing her relationship with Bridget by doing this, but when you're looking to go scorched earth you have to do things that you don't want to so you can get the results you want.

She knocked on the door and waited…

Brooke heard a knock on her door and wonder who it could be? She had not been expecting anyone to come visit her, but then she thought it could just be a package… as she made her way through the house, she just took a breath and open the door.

She gasped when she saw who came to visit her. It was hope at her door and she felt such elation, her daughter really only sent her emails, it was few weeks at a time. Hope was always making some kind of excuse of why she couldn’t visit her in Italy… She knew her daughter was having a hard time dealing with the fact that her child didn’t make it, but she also felt that it had been so long and she just didn't know why Hope can move on and come home… She was letting life pass her by and Brooke was missing having her daughter near her.

“Hope! I can’t believe this… Hope I can’t believe that you have come home! I have missed you so much and for so long. This is the most wonderful surprise I could have ever gotten...” Brooke said this with an excited smile as she hugged her daughter. She couldn’t even remember the last time that she hugged her daughter.

Hope might have felt a little bad, but she just couldn't her mother brought this upon herself… always making mistakes with them and wanting forgiveness after. To be a child of Brooke Logan meant die even when your mother wasn't trying to hurt you, she just had a knack for it. She was living proof that her mother made horrible decisions, and never had her children in mind when she made them. Her mother had issues with insensitivity and impulse control. Sometimes it felt like you were the parent, that you had to be in charge, it was her last draw when her mother kept pressing her to move on and to move on with Liam. It always boggled down to Liam. Her mother had it in her mind that Liam was somehow her Ridge, Brooke never let go of the belief that she was the love of Ridge's life, never mind the fact that he’s been with Taylor for more than three decades.

“I wanted to give you a surprise… I know that you’ve been missing me and I live so far away, but I know that my life is here in LA and it's time to come home.” Hope knew that these would be the magic words that would make Brooke the happiest.

When Brooke heard her daughter say that she was sticking around in LA, it made her feel on top of the world… She didn’t have Bridget, but she was going to do whatever she could to hold on to hope.

“Hope you really don't know what it means for you to say that to me, I have been missing you so much, but that doesn’t matter anymore because you are home and it's going to stay that way… But I have to ask why now?”

Brooke was curious because she knew that Steffy had filed for separation from Liam, she learned that from Katie and wondered if any of that had to do with Hope’s homecoming… Brooke started to get ahead of herself, maybe this time could be Hope and Liam’s time, maybe this time it could work. She knew that they were true love, they were meant to be and Steffy did whatever she could to get in between that. She wasn’t going to let anyone, especially not Steffy get in between Liam and her daughter again. She was going to make sure that her daughter happiness with Liam was going to be undisturbed, she didn’t know what stuff he was doing with the divorce filing but it was going to be her loss, she was going to see to it that hope was the one that came up on top this time, she was also going to make sure that this time would be the last time. Hope was going to be Liam’s wife and it was going to stay that way, whatever games Steffy hoped to achieve with punishing Liam for a stupid mistake wasn't going to give her the result that she wanted.

She was going to see to it that Steffy’s mistake was hopes advantage.

“There's a lot of factors that led me here, but I’m just ready to be home and get back to work. I know when I left, I left Forrester creations in a tailspin, but I’m ready to do the work this time, I want to be stronger, tell the world that I’m back and I’m not going anywhere… pick up the pieces to my life until many people who have gone through similar things to me that life is not over after a few horrible things occur in your life.”

Even though Hope was immeasurably upset with Steffy, she still needs to be near her in whatever fashion she could have. Being at FC again was going to be the only way she knew how to have her and stuffy in the same building. She knew that what she said was going to make Steffy angry and hurt, but Stephanie was also a prideful person and what she said was borderline unforgivable. But she didn’t want forgiveness, she wanted to hurt Steffy, it was something kindred to be able to hurt someone that you love more than anything, she knew that it was a toxic thought but she wasn't backing down. There is passion in betrayal, that was going to be the only kind of relationship she was going to have with Steffy at this point, so she was going to cling to it.

It made Brooke so happy to hear that hope wanted to get back to work. It was going to be a little difficult to try and convince Eric to revive the line because not only hope leaving but because Steffy was the CEO of the company. She knew that Eric granted the CEO just as much latitude as he granted Rick when he had the role. She wasn’t going to let Hope down though, she was going to do everything possible to make sure that Hope had her line again. She was going to do anything she could to make sure that her daughter never left again. Steffi was just gonna have to deal with the fact that Hope was here to stay and she was going to make sure that her daughter got everything that she deserved, she was going to start with making sure that her daughter had a job to go back to and support the relationship her daughter wanted with Liam. If Steffy got in the way, then Steffy would have to deal with the consequences…


	10. Chapter 10

Steffy was livid over the fact that she was circumvented by her grandfather about reviving the line for HFTF. This was something that made her so angry, this was a business decision that had nothing to do about business. She don’t know what Brooke said to her grandfather to make him believe that HFTF was a viable business idea… He said that as chairman of the board, he had the latitude to go over her head… She thought to herself he wasn’t wrong, but she really didn't appreciate him unilaterally telling her that this was going to be non-negotiable. At first, she thought that she was going to be able to talk to Hope and make her see that their future was still viable, but Hope told her everything she needed to know with running to mommy.

They were not getting back together, she couldn’t and wouldn't be in Brooke’s orbit. Steffy knew that Hope didn’t want to have Brooke in her life, so she started thinking why would Hope do this because Brooke wouldn’t think about reviving HFTF if it weren't for Hope… so when Hope didn’t come home she knew that she ran to Brooke. She knew that whatever Hope wanted to do, the clear intention was to get back at her and she was using Brooke as her guard dog to do it.

Steffy was seething as she started to dissect Hope’s game, Hope was hurt so the first thing she thought to do was lash out and she was doing it far and wide. The last thing she wanted to do was see Hope in her fucking building. Hope was playing a dangerous game, Steffy was not going to take this sitting down… But she felt that her back was against the wall. She was allergic to failure, she hated anything less than excellent, and she definitely couldn’t let a line fail under her watch. Even though she didn’t want HFT F to be revived, she needed to ensure that it was nothing less than successful even if it was going to be a challenge. This line was attached to her company, which meant that it was also attached to her and she refused to let anything compromise her abilities to be seen as one of the best CEOs in fashion. She was one of a very select few women who actually helmed the top positions at fashion houses, she didn’t wanna carry the burden, but it really doesn’t matter when you are a woman. When you fail, especially with executive level positions, they use you as a reason why women are not competent leaders, make it harder for other women to get jobs that can lead to an executive track because you're not graded upon your abilities, your intelligence or ingenuity… No you are graded upon impossible standards that weren’t even set by you.

That’s what made her most upset, Hope knew that, so whatever she was planning, it was done to spite Steffy and that just made Steffy feel hurt and angry. She had many conversations with Hope about this and how frustrated it made her feel to be nothing less than excellent, so she wasn’t the fall guy when some ugly crusty old man decided to pass up qualified women for some charismatic man that is allowed to fail as many times as his heart desires. For an industry that was predominantly propped up by women especially women of color, they had very little seats at the large table. Almost every aspect of the industry had men at the top… whether it was fashion publications, fashion houses, manufacturers, vendors, etc men had the market share with them all.

It wasn’t fair but this was reality, she didn’t want to be a part of a failed experiment saying women shouldn’t be at the head of the table. She was going to make HFTF a success despite not wanting it there in the first place. She already had ideas of how to position the line with her other successful lines, she was going to mitigate the bad buzz that surrounded the line. She knew that if she supported the line publicly, coming from her own voice in point of view that people would flock to it. The triangle from hell was not going to be a factor for fashion publications to bash the line, she was going to make sure that she had the designer she trusted committed to the line and make it foolproof. She didn’t care what Hope did, if she wanted to a line she could fucking have it, but she was going to veto every decision that she didn’t agree with… Everything would have to go through final approval from her here she wasn't going to waste any money to have failure walk up on her door.

Steffy knew in order for her to get what she wanted, she was going to have to do things in an unorthodox manner… So she set up an appointment, she was going to meet with someone who had talent and it was going to rile Hope up… she knew about Hope’s little play for Liam, it was obvious that was going to be her next move. Steffy found herself not wanting to back down, so she was going to fight for her marriage and show everyone just how gracious she could be…

When Steffy had called Liam over to talk, she had expected him to be groveling and begging her to take him back, but she was wrong… He started screaming at her he was in disbelief… He started talking about how he knew that he made a mistake and kissing Sally, he was so sorry for that but she couldn’t just throw away their marriage over it. They had so much going for them, so much history, people keeping them apart… He thought that they could overcome anything, but he was wrong. He blasted her, Steffy found out that Liam knew that there was a possibility that Bill could be the father. She wanted to kill Hope, she knew that they had been talking to each other ever since she found out that HFTF would be back at FC… she had no clue that Hope could betray her confidence like this. But Liam threw her for a loop when he told her that he overheard her and Bill talking. It made her so mad because Bill showed up unannounced to the house earlier. She hadn’t been back here since she left Liam in the dust, but she thought this was neutral ground and she would rather not invite him into her home to hash it out.

Bill kept badgering her wondering what decision she was going to make… He told her that it was simple, he could give her what Liam couldn’t… commitment. Steffy laughed at the notion of Bill being loyal to anyone other than Bill, he was going around in around talking about how she was the love of his life and he made the mistake of letting her go once and he wasn't going to do it again, but that’s not what stuff she wanted to hear. This is the man who cheated on his wife with her sister, after she took him back after her making a play for Bill, Steffy thought Bill was pitiful, she was now the new love of his life, the woman that could see the real him. The stuff he did, she did see the real him, the man with no scruples who would step on someone's back to get ahead. Steffy had no problem being ruthless in business, but Bill was in next level, she didn’t want to have in her life. The fact that this child could be his, made her sick to even think. Bill had told her that she needed to figure out what she was going to do because things were only going to get more complicated.

Steffy had withdrew her divorce petition, she had the intention of making it work with Liam because she couldn’t have what she wanted to have. She was trying to make the best of this pregnancy and have a semblance of a marriage; she just knew that she couldn’t trust Liam with anything she had but that really wasn’t her goal anymore.

So when he started yelling at her and trying to make it seem as if she was garbage, she couldn’t help herself she started crying and she did something that she never had done before, she begged him, it felt like the biggest mistake of her life. Liam had a quality to him that was very reminiscent of Bill, when he felt that you had done him wrong he turns into this morally superior asshole. It was some weird feeling that went through Steffy, it was like Liam got off making her feel like shit.

When she talked to her friends and told them everything happening in her life, they were livid… Lu and Lily B wanted to snap Liam in two. He used this as an excuse to run Hope as if he was some kind of victim in all of this. Steffy re-filed for the divorce petition, she didn’t know why she even entertained the thought of being with him again. He was a joke, she was going to make him pay.

When Sally had come for the appointment, Steffy could register the shock on Sally’s face… Sally for sure thought that she was going to be fired but Steffy her for a loop when she told her that she wanted Sally to be the lead designer for HFTF. Steffy was very frank with Sally; Sally could draw designs for days, weeks, even years that would be impressive for a line like HFTF, but it was going to be a concerted effort to make it a success. She didn’t like that Liam kissed Sally, but she wasn’t going to put it all on Sally. Somewhere deep down inside, Steffy had hoped that he wouldn’t do this again but somehow she knew that he would… She wasn’t going to let him try and pit her against another woman. She was done with that, it did nothing for her, she wasn’t going to completely blame Sally, no she was done with that. She knew that Sally was talented, she knew that the best revenge was being successful. All she hoped for was that Sally could see that no good would come from getting tangled with Liam. And now that Hope was back in a picture probably wanting to do a victory lap in Steffy’s face, she wasn't going to take it lying down. She was going to make sure that Sally was going to be a little thorn in Hope’s side. Steffy thought to herself, fuck with me… then I fuck with you too.

“I know that you’re really surprised to be in here right now, but I’m gonna get to the chase Sally… Yes I’m still upset at the fact that you and Liam kissed, but you’re not married to me. We have a professional relationship; you didn't do anything that violated the terms of your agreement with us. I’m gonna extend this opportunity to you because I believe that you deserve it. You have the requisite experience to be the lead designer of this line. I know that much is being made with the revival of HFTF. But I’m going to be extremely clear with you, you are going to be the lead designer of this line, but you ultimately answer to me. I get final approval on everything; nothing is to be submitted without my approval. Is that something that you think you can handle? I know that I have you doing a little bit of everything right now... But I really think we should go the route, of making you lead designer for HFTF and being the head of the athletics line. Tell me what are your thoughts?”

Sally was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she wasn’t fired, if anything she was getting a promotion. She knew that if she was going to be the head of two lines that she was in for a big payday. She knew she had to sort out her feelings about Liam, but she was relieved that it didn’t affect her job. In her mind there was no way in hell that a man would ever be worth her livelihood.

“Steffy, before I say anything, I really need to reiterate that I am sorry, I won’t lie and tell you that I don’t have feelings for your husband because I do. And I do feel ashamed about the kiss, I know what it’s like to be cheated on, especially by someone who promises you that they will be faithful. I honestly thought you were going to fire me today, but I am very thankful for this opportunity. When I lost Spectra, I was unsure about where I was going to go. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to my last employer. Working here, being around some of the best designers has only made me a better designer and I appreciate that. I very much wanna take up the responsibility of running the two lines. I know that you know that athletics is something that is important to me and I know I have extensive background in making the type of clothes that you will seek for HFTF. I promise to be focused on work and deliver for Forrester, I wanna thank you for the opportunity and the trust that you are putting into me in a professional capacity.”

“Sally I accept your apology, no matter how I slice it, I refuse to put most of the blame on you. You were right, Liam is the one that committed to me, he is the one that made vows to me and he broke them. I know that you have feelings for my husband and instead of stopping the kiss, he kissed you back… I can’t put blame on you for him kissing you back. But that is neither here nor there, I would never let any kind of personal business affect the one that makes me money. I know what kind of viability you could bring to the table, so that is exactly what I’m going to do. I know the legacy that you want to have for your aunt Sally. I know that we will be a great team on the professional front, and that is something that I want with all of my lead designers. I have the confidence that your designs, your business acumen combined with mine will help this line succeed.”

“I don’t know if I’m overstepping my bounds, but this line is named after Hope and I am sure with it being re launched an her back in town that she will be a part of the process, I don’t know what kind of authority she would be on this line… You are telling me that you get final approval for everything but what about her? I don’t want to make any mistakes with this line because it is important for me to be on the up and up with my career… How do you want me to handle that front?”

Steffy looked at Sally with a blank face, in her mind Hope was no designer, she didn’t do any work the first go around… it was just a vanity project that mommy got for her and she didn't know what Hope was going to do the second time around, but she didn’t have any time to speculate… And frankly she just didn’t care.

“I am sure that you had some kind of celebrity capsule collections, when you were at Anthropologie, just treat it like that except minus the celebrity part.”

Sally did her best not to laugh at the comment, she knew the Steffy was being incredibly serious when Steffy said it. She was used to the vanity projects with celebrities and insta celebrities, they would come around act like they were doing such big things looking at other peoples designs thinking that they were designers themselves.

“I can do that.”

“As long as we're on the same page, then this line will be successful. So I think our meeting is done here, I’ll get HR to send you a new contract, with your new pay. If you need any new team members you just let me know if you want them internally or if you wanna find them externally. When can I expect some designs for you for the initial relaunch of HFTF? I think we will be fine on the athletics front for at least this season because you pumped out a lot of designs for that already…”

“I can start today it’s not going to take me a long time to craft a collection for a line like this, it really just depends on how quick you're willing to roll this out. What kind of time frame were you thinking of?”

“I honestly want this as fast as possible because I want to tie it in with our marketing packages for the current lines it’ll just make it easier and cheaper on that front to tie it with the other lines. The sooner we can get designs and get them approved the sooner that we can get them made and shipped out. I also want this to be packaged with our media partners, so this line could be tied to all of the other ones in a seamless and organic way…”

“Yeah, I can definitely make that happen give me about two days and I can have a full collection for you.” Sally knew that it may seem like this wasn’t a long time to create a collection but when she was at Anthropologie, she would have crunch times like these if she really wanted to be the designer where her designs were going to be the ones used. She got used to the hustle and bustle of making quick turn around.

Steffy was impressed with the kind of speed that Sally could make things happen. She knew that if Sally was saying that she could create the line in two days then it would be done in two days. Sally was similar to her she wouldn’t say it unless it could be done and there was no way that Sally was going to put a timetable she couldn’t deliver on.


	11. Chapter 11

Today was hope’s first day back at Forrester Creations, she got an email telling her that there would be a strategizing meeting for HFTF. It made Hope excited to see that her line was going to be a priority for them. It was like they wanted to hit the ground running and she wasn’t going to complain to that.

When she got to the designated conference room she was thrown for a loop when she saw that Sally and Steffy were in the meeting. She made sure to come early because she wanted to be serious this go around… She was glad that she wasn’t the last one in the room.

When she saw Steffy and Sally talking it made her feel a little weird. She knew that Sally was a designer, but she had no clue that she would be included with this line. She also didn’t foresee the fact that Steffy was going to be here. Even though she was thrown for a loop she couldn’t help but feel happy to see Steffy. She has said a lot of things during their last meeting that she wanted to take back, but she knew with reviving this line that Steffy would be very upset.

“Alright it seems that almost everyone is here, I honestly don’t want to waste any time because I have to get a move on and look at the other lines, I’ve instituted this meeting so we can start brainstorming for HFTF… I have decided that our lead designer is going to be Sally Spectra, she has a lot of experience in this space, she knows the kind of aesthetic that this line is going to for the consumer we need to go after. Team we are also welcoming back Hope Logan to the company, she will be the spokesperson for the line.”

Hope didn’t understand why Steffy was only saying that she was the spokesperson for the line, this was her line… this was Hope for the Future and she felt that she should get a little bit more respect than just being the spokesperson for this line.

“I had a lot of ideas for how we could do the relaunch…”

Just about everyone in the room looked at Hope with a confused look on their faces. No one could believe that she would interrupt Steffy while Steffy was still talking…

“Hope, right now we are not in a Socratic method, I am still explaining what I want for the line and each Department will have their own time to explain their contributions to this line and how it will tie into all of our lines within the company. I’ll call on you when it’s your turn, but I don’t anticipate the spokesperson having that much to say…”

It was clear that the tension in the room started to thicken and everyone looked at Steffy wondering what she was going to do next.

Hope was absolutely furious with being dismissed in front of all these people by Steffy, this was her line and she deserved a modicum of respect. She deserved a chance to talk about her vision for the line.

“Well seeing as how this is Hope for the Future I believe that my ideas should be a centerpiece after all...”

“Seeing as how it’s my money and my company, we will want an integrated vision for how this line will tie into our other lines and this line is not Hope for the Future, it is HFTF by Sally Spectra. You are the spokesmodel for this brand and normally you are not needed in the room this was just a courtesy. If you have any questions about your employment contract you can visit HR. Now getting back to business… I have already approved two seasons worth of looks by Sally, Sally you have the floor to do your PowerPoint. If there’s any questions can we please save it for after the PowerPoint presentation, thank you...”

Sally started to go over the items for the collection, she also described her rationale behind it and the intention with every single piece. They were coming up on some of the most popular music festivals and she had a curated collection just for music festivals that she thought would be great to have a marketing scheme for events like Lollapalooza and Coachella.

Hope just sat there as she listened to every single Department talk about how they were going to market and execute the line, it seemed that everyone was bringing their A game and being aggressive with wanting the line to succeed. On one hand she loved the fact that people were going all in with the line but on the other hand she didn’t think that it was going to be like this, she thought she was going to have more of a collaborative spirit and input into the line. This was supposed to be her baby and she literally had nothing to say or add. It was like all of the answers were being said, so she had nothing to contribute.

Steffy made sure to reiterate that all of the approvals would have to go through her, and made Hope a little irked because the last time HFTF was a line there she was the end all be all but now she really felt just like a glorified model for the brand.

Steffy listened to all of her department’s put in their ideas and she was really liking the direction that they wanted to take. She knew that the line was going to be a success as long as she was at the forefront of it. She knew in order to quash a lot of the rumors and tabloid fodder that was tied to the line and the people involved, she was going to have to be proactive about it.

She knew that Hope was mad at the fact that she reiterated that this line was HFTF and not Hope for the Future. No one in the room ever referred to it as that. If her grandfather was going to try to run her, he was gonna have another thing coming to him. She wasn’t going to allow anyone to make her feel like she was going to be pigeonholed as the head honcho there. She worked too hard for so long just to have decisions made for her that she didn’t necessarily agree with. If Hope wanted to run to mommy and have mommy talk to her grandfather then so be it but she was gonna have everything to back it up.

“All right everyone this was a good meeting, please get some point people from each one of your teams so we can execute this, we are going to be on a bit of a tight time crunch because I want this line to be integrated with all of the other lines so we can save money on all of our media packages. We have already bought the ad space, we need to be able to fulfill on a full scheme for all of the lines. I want this to be a seamless transition. I should be able to go into any one of our boutiques or a Department store and feel like our athletics line, our lingerie line, or our couture line will be a seamless experience for the customer to say that HFTF is something indicative of our umbrella. If anyone has any questions you can reach me via email or you can call my business cell. I’ll be in my office but you should all know that you need to refer to my calendar so you can see if I have any time that is free. Is there any questions?”

“I have a question, but I was wondering if I could speak to you alone about it…” Hope was the first person to ask for anything. The heads of the Department just look between the two of them and if anyone had a question for Steffy, it died on their tongue because they did not want to be the one to follow Hope because they already knew what was going to happen.

“Alright guys it sounds like we are all done, when you guys get an outline please email me and let me know if you need any additional resources… I’ll do whatever I can within means to make sure that you have everything that you need to succeed thank you everyone.”

Everyone started to shuffle out of the room, it was only them two left.

“You'll have a couple of minutes. I’m going back to my office. You can tell me the questions that you have on the way.”

“I actually don’t feel comfortable saying it on the way, I’d rather just say it in your office in confidence please.”

Steffy knew that she couldn’t deny that kind of request because they did have an open door policy and she was a position of authority there and she would never have any employee say that she wasn’t fair to them. She was going to extend Hope the same opportunity that she would extend to any other employee within the company.

They walked in silence to her office and then Steffy locked the door when she got there.

“So you're telling me that you had something to say? Well now is the time to say it Hope what were your questions?”

“I don’t understand why I’m not getting the same kind of responsibility that I had with the first go around with HFTF…” Hope really wanted to know if her personal relationship with Steffy was going to affect her business relationship at Forrester Creations.

“This is going to be a different regime than what you are used to, the way Rick handled things will not be the same way that I handle things. We do have autonomy with our lines for our lead designers, however everything will go through me for final approval. That’s how I run my company nothing will go out without my approval. If we fail it will be because I let us fail not because I had any kind of lack of oversight. Hope you have no design skills, and I’m also not wasting any money. Every single dollar will be allocated towards real results, do you think that we are lacking in any Department that will make this line succeed?”

“No, I don’t think that but I really do believe that since this is my line I should have more responsibility, I know my first time around I was young an reckless but I have grown since then…”

“You are right you were younger than reckless back then with company resources however I’m not using the past to penalize you. I just have a different management style than Rick. You were the spokesperson for Hope for the Future and I have extended in that overture to you with having you be the spokesperson for HFTF. The line is not yours it’s an entity of FC just like any other line here, they all fall under my purview, which make them my lines. I don’t want you to be confused about anything.”

“But now you’re saying that this isn’t my line and I don’t understand that because my name is in it this is my legacy.”

“But you see hope that’s where we don’t agree. I have decided that this will be HFTF, there is not going to be any specific messages tie to the brand because the last time that happened it was incredibly polarizing. I am not going to have any of my lines and yes I said my lines being called out for anti-feminist themes especially when I’m not running the company to be as such. And this is not your legacy this is my legacy because if there is egg to be thrown it won’t be thrown at your face it will be thrown at mine. If the company fails it will be failing because of me, I will be the one who will be ostracized. That’s why I will be the one to fall on the sword, all approvals will go through me because at the end of the day I will know exactly why we won’t be successful. I am not about shedding blame or talking about the past. I have done everything that I can to make sure that the company is viable and fix past mistakes. I am not going to hold it against you and nothing that I do is going to be on some personal vendetta. Every business decision I make it’s for the success of the company as a whole and nothing less.”

“Say that I do believe you. I know that you wouldn’t make decisions based on personal emotions about business, but why do you have to handicap me as if I can’t contribute to this line.”

“Hope you can contribute in the same way that you should have been contributing with the last H FTF, you can be the spokesmodel for the brand, you can be the leading brand ambassador for the brand. You do have responsibilities when it comes to this line. I just won’t have you cavorting around the world for gems and there's nothing wrong with that being a brand ambassador. I don’t know if you thought reviving HFTF would lead you to be a jetsetter, but I can promise you that won’t happen this time. We use our resources wisely here. The things of yesteryear will definitely not be happening on my watch so if that’s why you came back then I’m sorry you’re going to be disappointed because that's not going to happen…”

Hope was starting to feel very upset because she knew that Steffy wasn’t going to change her mind and Steffy wasn't necessarily wrong, but it frustrated her because she felt like she didn’t come prepared to work and now it was backfiring on her. She was just looking at Steffy in an upset manner, on one hand she loved it when Steffy talked business she thought it was very sexy, but on the other hand she was on the short end of the stick.

“I want to be proactive in the brand, I don’t want to make it seem that I’m just resting on my laurels because I didn’t come back for that. I want to be involved. I don’t have any designs to be jetsetting trying to find diamonds or any other kind of gemstone. Steffy I really do want to work. Our time in Europe… it really was inspiring to see how you worked and see the kind of hustle and work ethic that you had I want to have that as well.”

The mention of Europe was able to get under Steffy’s skin a little bit, she knew what Hope was doing and to be honest it was a little successful. Even though she was incredibly mad at Hope it didn’t mean that she stopped loving her.

“Hope if you're really serious about stepping up and wanting to have a good work ethic, I will take you at your word, if you want to really show me that you mean what you say, you can be a brand ambassador for multiple lines including our lingerie line…” Steffy was challenging her. She didn’t really need Hope to be a lingerie model if she didn’t want to be that, she was just trying to see exactly what was Hope’s angle.

Hope wanted to gasp a little when Steffy mentioned that she could be the spokesmodel for the lingerie line… It was not something that she actually thought of before, but being with Steffy liberated her in a lot of ways. She still had some of her shyness, but she found herself less afraid of doing certain things. She still cared about what people thought of her, she knew that she probably would always feel that way, but she knew that she felt stronger to not let the voices get to her as much.

“I will do it, sign me up…”

“Funny you should say that because we actually have a photoshoot going on at 2:00 o'clock. We’re shooting all of the lingerie for the next three seasons all at once, are you going to do the photo shoot today or are you gonna wait a year to really prove yourself?”

Hope felt her whole body flame from Steffy’s words. It was one o’clock so if she was going to be doing the photoshoot it meant that she would have to be in hair and makeup at this very moment.

It felt like the longest minute in the world to decide if she was actually going to go through with doing a photoshoot or deciding to back out. Hope hated the fact that she still had that part of herself that always wanted to impress Steffy, she wanted Steffy to have pride in her.

“I’ll do it, where is the photoshoot taking place…”

“I’ll send you the contact info of the head of casting for photoshoots, she will tell you where to go and where to be. Now if that’s all I need to get back to work...”

Hope didn’t bother saying anything else because she didn’t want to lose her nerve and then go back on her word. When she left Steffy’s office she got a text from her letting her know exactly where to go.


	12. Chapter 12

Hope hurried so they could get her measurements and her makeup and hair done. It had been a long time since she did a photoshoot. She forgot how much she liked getting dolled up. This was completely different than what she was used to.

She was shedding more clothes this go around. She heard the models talking about this line was completely designed by Steffy and Steffy alone. She didn’t really end up speaking to anyone, but she did listen. No one made her feel unincluded she just thought she would observe. She found out that these models had been here since Steffy took over the company. It seemed that Steffy had built a good rapport with her lingerie models.

When Hope saw some of the designs and made her blush. This will be the first time that she ever had lingerie on and it wasn't for a lover or herself. She tried to psych herself up and say this was just work. She wanted to keep her nervousness at bay.

Hope watched the other lingerie models hoping to get some pointers, she has done some photo shoots but this was a different ball game. When it was her turn, she thought that she was ready.

Steffy had made her way over to the photoshoot, she knew that she was gonna be needed. She knew that this was going to be Hope’s first time doing a photoshoot with less clothes than she was used to. Even though she knew that Hope could be professional, she also knew that she might have been uncomfortable.

She needed Hope to be at her sexiest, she needed to showcase desire and she knew the catalyst for Hope’s desire was her. So she made herself front and center.

All she did was stare at Hope, she gave her the stare that she knew made her weak.

Hope hadn’t expected that Steffy would be here, she also didn't expect she would be looking at her the way that she did. The feelings that were going through Hope’s body when she saw Steffy’s face made her feel wanton. It made her feel alive, she felt sexy and it translated in the photos. The photographer said that she was doing good. The lace she was wearing left a lot to be desired, she could feel that the underwear she was wearing was damp. The photographer had gotten all of the shots that she needed with all of the girls, people started to shuffle out. Hope didn’t want to take her lingerie off because she didn't want anyone to see the evidence of her arousal. She will be a little embarrassed having to give it back to the costume director.

She didn’t know when it happened or how, but it seemed as if it was only her and Steffy left in the room. She knew it was dangerous to be alone with Steffy with only her underwear on. But there was a part of her that was excited.

“You did pretty good for your first lingerie photoshoot.”

“Thank you. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, it was actually a little fun.”

“I bet it was…” Steffy laughed in a taunting manner, that sent even more want through Hope.

Steffy just walked closer to Hope, which made her fall on the bed. She could feel her heartbeat so fast, as she fell onto the plush bed.

Steffy smirked as she saw how hot and bothered Hope was, she could see the woman’s chest go up and down trying to catch breath.

“What has got you so worked up, it looks like you can barely catch a breath?”

Hope couldn’t say anything, she couldn’t trust herself.

“Huh, would you look at that it looks like you got the panties wet...” Steffy said this as she took a seat on the bed.

Hope felt her body go flush at Steffy’s words. She opened her legs, hoping she wouldn’t be rejected.

“It's just the effect that you have on me.”

Hope felt brave and a little stupid, she was taking her panties off at her job, in front of her boss who happened to also be her ex.

Steffi wasn’t expecting this, at least not so soon. But she did enjoy having this effect on Hope. With the exception of her bra that showed just about everything, Hope was naked to her. Her legs were open, she could see the wetness on her pussy. It made Steffy happy with glee.

“What are you doing?”

“Steffy I feel like my whole body is on fire, make it better…”

Hope didn’t have to vocalize anymore because Steffy knew exactly what she wanted from the get go. She put her hands on Hope’s pussy happy to see the reaction. Hope was moaning, but as quick as Steffy put her hand on, she took it off.

Hope was disappointed, but she saw that Steffy went to go lock the door and put music on. She came back and rubbed Hope’s pussy some more. It made Hope get lost in the sensation, her moans started to get louder.

“You can let it out, you can scream if you want, the music is going to drown it out.”

Steffi used her fingers to rub the wetness all over Hope’s pussy, when she slipped a finger into her whole body shook.

“Go ahead and touch your breast, pinch those nipples but don't take off the bra…” Steffy whispered this in her ear and then took a bite of Hope’s neck.

Hope felt that she was going to come soon, but she wanted more.

“Steffy, sit on my face…”

Steffy knew that Hope’s favorite pastime was eating her out but she definitely didn't expect for that to be the thing that she said, but Steffy wasn’t one to ever pass up an offer. Without missing a beat she took her underwear off with one hand while fingering Hope with the other.

She sat on Hope’s face and hissed when she felt Hope’s tongue connect. Hope had a talented tongue, she couldn’t help but get turned on hearing the slurping sounds, the feeling of Hope’s tongue on her clit was always euphoric. Hope was sucking as much as she could into her mouth and flicking her tongue on Steffy’s clit back and forth... She increased the speed because she wanted to make sure that Steffy came, she was pretty close herself and she had the tendency to lose function when she orgasm. She knew that Steffy was close because she started riding her face.

Steffy had made her come first, she made sure that she had Steffy coming right along with her.

“Goddamnit!” Steffy screamed when her orgasm hit her. She kept grinding her palm into Hope’s clit to elongate Hope’s orgasm. By the sounds she could tell that she was successful.

When Steffy was finished she got up and put on her underwear. To someone observing from the outside you would have never known that she had just been getting oral sex.

“Steffy…”

“This is work, you can call me Stephanie or you can call me Ms. Forrester. If you have any questions about business, then you can look at my outlook calendar and make an appointment.”

Hope was shocked at the exchange, Steffy just left the room like nothing happened. She was left alone trying to figure out what was happening. The only conclusion that she could come to was that Steffy was still pissed off about the line being revived.

She thought things would smooth over and that they could at least work closely together, but that didn't seem to be the case. She knew that the line was going to be successful,l but it mostly wasn’t going to be because of her. She knew that Steffy was going to be upset with her because she was hanging around Liam again.

Liam was confiding in her that he found out about Steffy sleeping with Bill and being in disbelief that could even occur. Hope was starting to rethink her plan about being with Liam but it was clear to her that it was only a matter of time before he was going to set his sights on her. He kept telling her that he couldn’t believe that Steffy was willing to throw them away, but in the same breath he kept talking about their history together.

Her mother had it in her head that she and Liam were going to just get back together and pick up where they left off. Hope felt confused on what to do because Steffy was not going to be receptive to anything she had to say. Her attitude today proved it; it didn’t matter that they just had sex. She could feel Steffy’s anger… it was the same anger that helped fueled her orgasm.


	13. Chapter 13

Brooke felt the Hope needed to get her mind in the game, she had Liam so close she just really had to reel him in at this point but her focus was split.

Brooke had already been upset at the fact that Hope wasn’t as involved with HFTF as she was last time. She had went to Eric wanting to know why was he allowing this to happen... She didn’t get the answer that she wanted when he told her that at the end of the day it was Steffy’s CEO and she just had a different way of running things and he wasn't going to stop her. Clearly something was working because FC was in his best position that it has been in years.

Brooke was livid at the fact that her daughter was being sidelined, she had given FC a lot over the years and this was how her daughter was going to be treated, as if she wasn’t good enough to run her own line… Brooke knew that she couldn’t do anything about that, but she definitely could get the ball rolling on Hope and Liam, so she channeled her focus on that.

Brooke was completely unsatisfied with the fact that Steffy had Hope traveling all over the country, doing promo at Forrester boutiques and stores affiliated with them. She felt that Hope could be doing the same thing at home in LA at the office... She didn’t like the fact that Hope was gone so much of the time because that left little time to have a reunion officially with Liam.

She had been talking to Liam about his relationship with her daughter and how it should proceed. Liam had told her that he loved Hope and he always would, he was thinking maybe this time would be their time.

When Liam got word that he was the baby's father he felt a sigh of relief. He knew that a baby would actually complicate his life, because he was moving forward with hope. He thought that they were rekindling something. He had such anger for his father that he didn't want Bill to have something as wonderful as a child.

It felt good to be able to stick it to him. Liam always wanted to know what was happening with Steffy, in his mind he thought since she was having his child that he should be included in everything. Just because they weren’t together anymore, he didn't think that he should have a different experience then he would if he was still with Steffy.

Steffy however didn’t see it that way, she kept feeling as if she couldn't breathe without Liam’s permission. He kept making this pregnancy so stressful without needing to be. She felt that he was overbearing and stepping out of bounds and she felt like she needed an ally on her side. He had Hope parroting everything he was saying, and made her feel so stressed out. Her doctor kept telling her that even though a lot of the scar tissue was removed it didn't mean that she wasn't still high risk.

She kept trying to avoid stress, but Liam was the biggest stressor she had and he wasn't letting up. It got so bad that she cried for an hour on the phone with her mother. Liam kept stressing her out so much and he kept bringing people who didn’t matter into the fold like Brooke. She didn’t understand why Brooke had anything to say to her about her child. Brooke kept saying that this was going to be Hope stepchild and she would have say in her life as Liam’s partner. It made Steffy incredibly mad because she felt as if all these people who didn’t matter were trying to overstep their bounds and take away her role as this child's mother.

Steffi didn’t want to admit to her parents that this was becoming too much for her, she didn’t want them to have to leave their life. She knew that her mom was having a great time just being a grandma to Douglas in New York she didn't want anything to change but the situation became pretty untenable. It made Taylor incredibly upset to hear that Brooke was saying anything about her grandchild and how they were going to be raised. She had been talking with Bridget about the situation and it made Bridget pretty upset too. Even though Bridget lived in New Orleans, she still traveled pretty frequently back and forth to LA. She had told Taylor that she would take some time off of work to make sure that Steffy was okay because she was so close to delivering the baby.

When Bridget had got to LA she decided it would be best to live in Taylor’s house, she had made sure that Steffy was comfortable and her only goal was to make sure that Steffy felt empowered.

Steffy fell a sense of elation when Bridget had decided to stay in LA for a while, her pride wouldn’t let her have her parents come home but she was happy that they pretty much saw through her façade and sent Bridget to help her.

It came to a head one day when Steffy had one of her appointments and Liam showed up with Brooke and Hope. It had angered Bridget to see why her Brooke was even there. She also didn’t think it was appropriate for Hope to be there. It was clear that this was something that wasn’t run by Steffy and it also seemed that no one cared.

She ended up telling them that they were not welcome into the room and neither was Liam. She couldn’t believe that they thought it was appropriate that they were there. She wasn’t going to allow anyone to disrespect Steffy and act like her comfort didn’t matter. She told Liam that he was out of bounds and things were about to change.

Liam wanted to tell her that as the father of the baby he had just as much right to be there and he had a support system. He didn’t realize he was messing with the wrong one. Bridget told him that no… he really didn’t have the right to be there. The child wasn’t born yet and if Steffy doesn’t want him at the doctor’s office then she would see to it that he will not be there.

She knew that Brooke was making it a mission to make Steffy feel horrible, she was trying to make it as if Steffy with some conduit for Taylor or at least it seemed like it. She knew that Brooke was bitter that she wasn’t the one who won. She told Liam that he would be barred from seeing Steffy until she gave birth. He didn’t care that this pregnancy was high risk or the fact that he was stressing Steffy out. She didn’t know if it was because he wanted to punish her but there was only one thing that was actually happening, Steffy’s health was being compromised. She didn’t deserve the high blood pressure; she didn’t deserve the higher probability of early birth because someone had their ego shot to hell.

Bridget had made it her job to keep Steffy on the up and up. Steffy was working more from home now which was good but Bridget told her soon she would be recommending that she ceased to do any kind of work and just focus on the last weeks of pregnancy.

“Hey Bridget, I just need to swing by the office and get these last meetings tackled. I’m so excited about our newest collections, I can’t wait for them to come out.”

“Steffy is it absolutely necessary? I think that you should stay home, is it possible to just you know FaceTime…”

“Yeah, but it honestly wouldn't be the same because I wouldn’t get a feel for the clothes and how they look up close… I shouldn’t take too long though.”

“Yeah, I guess you have a point, do you want me to give you a ride to work…”

“That would be awesome actually because I really feel terrible, this baby is just killing my back…”

“Yeah, I remember what it was like with this several pregnancies and the backaches and swollen feet but honestly it’s going to be so worth it when you see your daughter’s face.”

“Yeah, I know I can hardly wait.”

Bridget drove Steffy to work and she told her to call her when she was ready to be picked up. She was going to stay out of the house, so it wasn’t going to take her long to be back. Stephanie nodded and then went to the building.

Steffi had a couple of meetings with the lead designers for a couple of the lines. Sally had been her last meeting and she thought to herself choosing a mood for a roast beef sandwich after this.

“These are going to be all of the final looks for the line, tell me what you think?”

“I think this looks amazing, I think the first spring collection is going to be really good for us and then we're going to hit them each month with the new looks. I think we’re going to have a really good quarter of healthy sales across the board.”

Sally and Steffy had gotten better relationship over the course of her pregnancy because their good professional relationship had thawed their personal acrimonious relationship. Steffy like to think that it was akin to the original Sally and Stephanie.

The door to her office was being open which confused stuffy because she wasn’t expecting anyone else for this meeting. Then she saw Liam and Hope coming in. She had made it her mission to never be in the same room as Liam since the dust up at the doctor’s office.

“Steffy, I was hoping we could talk…”

“Liam, I don’t have time for this I am conducting business, you can’t just show up unannounced to my job.”

Sally felt uncomfortable because she didn’t want to be a part of whatever was going on.

“Steffy, you haven’t been returning my calls and you have been avoiding me, we are having a child soon and you have been shutting me out and that's just not right.”

“Liam, I have nothing to say to you until the baby is born, I don’t have to do anything with you, we are not together.”

“Steffy whether you like it or not Hope and I are going to be apart of this child’s life, you need to include us in decisions. You can’t just shut us out.”

“Steffy, Liam is right we're going to have to find common ground, we need to figure out how this is going to work.” Since the lingerie shoot, Steffy didn’t touch her. Steffy didn’t give her any attention if it wasn’t work related. It made it easier for Hope to decide to agree to be Liam’s wife. It was the only way to have any bit of Steffy’s attention.

Steffy felt her temper flaring, she was trying to not get stressed, but she couldn’t help it. She felt like she was being badgered. This was what she was afraid of there's two against one.

“Hey, I know you guys need to talk but this really is not the time to do this, you’re stressing Steffy out.” Sally really didn’t like the fact that Hope and Liam were piling on. Steffy wasn’t looking good and she was starting to breathe hard and it was kind of scary, but it didn’t seem like Hope or Liam cared what they were doing.

“Sally, this is none of your business, it doesn’t concern you. I am going to be this child’s stepmother and Liam is going to be the father we deserve to be there making decisions for this child. Is not fair for Steffy to try and avoid that reality.” Hope didn’t like the fact that Sally was saying anything, no one was talking to her. She did feel some jealousy at the fact that Sally had more power on HFTF then she did.

“You two need to leave, you have been stressing me out my whole pregnancy. I need to take care of myself and the two of you and Brooke keep deciding what’s going to happen with my baby. I’m not a freaking surrogate, I am the mother of this child. It’s my life that’s at risk not yours. It's already high risk and neither of you give a damn, you keep bombarding me with all of these surprises… it's not right. If you have anything to say to me, you can save it for after the child is born. But you showing up unannounced to my work or bringing people that I approve of is just not okay...” Steffy started to hold her stomach, she always did that subconsciously... she started to feel lightheaded.

“No Steffy, you can’t keep using that as an excuse. You are seriously being childish about this; you need to start acting like a mature adult so we can co-parent. You can’t just decide to shut me out! You keep dodging my calls and you're not giving me updates when I want them about my child. I deserve to be in the know and you shutting me out is not acceptable. You can't keep doing this, you have made this difficult for me first, the whole thing with sleeping with my father and then now you're trying to bar me of the experience of my child well that's not going to happen. I am done! Just done!” Liam was seething and his shouting was really starting to disorient Steffy.

Hope was about to say something, but it died on her lips when she saw that Steffy was crying.

“Leave me alone!” Steffy felt like it was hard to breathe with all of the back and forth. She just couldn’t catch not one breath and she was starting to feel dizzy. She used all of her breath to shout at them to leave her be.

It was blood curdling to Sally’s ears. 

Steffy was crying so hard she couldn’t see in front of her.

“Oh crap…” Sally saw that Steffy’s dress was wet.

“Oh my God did her water just break…” Liam was starting to freak out because he didn't know what to do.

Hope felt like she was in a Twilight zone, she remembered what it was like to give birth early and felt herself panicking.

“We need to get her to a hospital now…” Hope was starting to get worried because Steffy didn't look good.

“She is sure as hell not going anywhere with you, c’mon Steffy I’ll take you to the hospital myself.” Sally was so upset at how Liam and Hope thought they could talk to Steffy this way. No matter if she slept with Bill or not, she didn’t deserve to be treated like some kind of incubator. She thought that Liam was this caring and sensitive guy, but she was getting a front row view of how callous he could be. It really changed her whole outlook on him.

Sally had taken Steffy to the nearest hospital, Steffy had asked her to call her aunt and tell her that her water broke. Steffy had given Sally her phone and when she spoke to Bridget who said she would be right over.

Bridget was pissed because she knew that Steffy was early, she made a call to Taylor and Ridge letting them know that Steffy was going to give birth. They had planned to be there for the birth, so they were scrambling trying to get to LA now.

When Bridget got there, she was surprised but not surprised to see that Hope and Liam were already there. It made her wonder how in the hell did they know? Before she could question it, she had to remember that her niece needed her right now. She had made calls to her relatives in the area letting them know that Steffy was going to be giving birth…

All Bridget said to Liam was he’d better not dare think that he was coming in.

Liam had the decency to not say anything. He just started to make some calls. Steffy’s family came first, and they dominated the waiting room. All of them just looked at Liam with disdain on their face. It was almost as if they we're daring him to do anything so they could have an excuse to pummel him into dust.

Hope didn't bother calling anyone because she didn't think that it would be appropriate, she was already starting to feel the guilt mounting on her. Steffy cried and told them to leave her alone, but they didn't and now she was giving birth early. When Hope gave birth early she delivered a dead son, she was really hoping that Steffy didn't have the same conclusion that she did.

She didn’t think that she would be able to forgive herself if anything were to happen to Steffy’s child.

Sally stayed there because she wanted to find out if the baby and Steffy were going to be okay. She thought that Steffy was going to pass out on the way to the car it was a surprise when she didn't.

When Bridget got to Steffy’s room it gave Steffy some more confidence. She was so scared because things were moving at a rapid pace. She knew that there was no timetable for giving birth, but this was special circumstances.

“Your mom and dad are coming as soon as they can, Thomas is coming too…”

Steffy nodded her head she felt better knowing that her parents were coming soon. She didn’t know how long it was going to take for her to give birth, but she did hope that her mom would be there with her.

Bridget took one look at Steffy and knew that something bad happened, at the last doctors appointment the OB said the Steffy was coming along nicely. They made no mention of the fact that Steffy had a high risk for giving early birth as long as she stayed stress free. The fact that Liam and Hope were already in the waiting room before she got there she suspected that they had something to do with Steffy being there.

She could tell that Steffy had been crying and she looks stressed out.

“Hey baby girl, I’m gonna be right back. I’m going to be right outside the door so if you need anything, I’ll be close...”

Bridget got up and went to the waiting area, she had asked Sally to come over. She walked with Sally until she was back at Steffy’s door. She asked Sally to tell her exactly why Steffy was giving birth right now ahead of schedule.

It made Sally so uncomfortable to explain to Bridget how and why Steffy was in distress. She could see that it only made Bridget even more upset, but she would probably feel the same way if someone was treating her niece cruelly.

The doctors examined Steffy and said that even though her water had broken, they were going to monitor her but it might be hours before she actually gave birth. It just depended on her contractions. It was a relief to both Bridget and Steffy to hear that because they both had hope that Taylor would make it in time.


	14. Chapter 14

Steffy felt anxious because the baby was coming too early. Bridget had told her to lie on her left side and to keep her legs closed as much as she could.

Steffy did as she was told because Bridget was the doctor among the two of them. She felt anxious, but Bridget made it her mission to keep Steffy as calm as possible. The calmer Steffy was meant a less likely chance of the baby being in distress. Ridge and Taylor caught the first flight they could out of LaGuardia. Steffy had felt contractions, but they were still very far apart. It made Bridget hopeful that her brother and sister-in-law would be able to make it before Steffy gave birth.

She had told all the doctors and nurses that Liam was not allowed in the room and if they let him in, she was going to tie them up in so much litigation that they would never practice again. She told her father that he could come in because she knew that Eric was worried about Steffy. He offered to get her ice chips as a way to calm her down and keep her focused. It was something that he remembered with Stephanie when she was pregnant.

Eric decided that he wasn’t going to leave until he was sure that everything was going to be okay. He was the one that was going back and forth letting people know about any updates. Liam had started to ask questions, but they died on his lips when he saw the hard look from Eric’s face.

Eric didn’t know all of the details between Steffy and Liam, but he knew that something had to be wrong if Steffy didn't want him anywhere near the room. So he was going to stand by his granddaughter and not tell Liam anymore information than necessary. Liam had tried to convince Eric that he should be in the delivery room, but Eric wasn’t budging. The only thing he cared about was Steffy’s comfort and he knew that comfort would be compromised if Liam was in the room.

He was ashamed at the gall that Liam could display. He couldn’t take it if anything happened to his granddaughter. He knew that this pregnancy came with a lot of high risk because of her previous miscarriage. He knew from his talks with his son that Ridge had no good words to say about Liam. Steffy was always diplomatic and kept things close to the vest when it was her relationship or lack thereof but the fact that Steffy wasn’t very free giving about it made him know that it was in her best interest for him to stay out there.

Eric had such a hatred for all things Spencer that started from the top… The original Bill Spencer always got under his skin. This man was always in love with his wife and would do anything to have her. But that was the difference between Bill Spencer and his progeny, the original Bill had honor, he never pressured Stephanie about anything, he respected her but he couldn't say the same for the man's son or grandson.

He didn’t know what Bill Junior said to Steffy, it was just incredibly hard for him to believe that Steffy would do anything with Bill after she had promised Stephanie that she would never degrade herself by getting involved with someone her grandmother could never respect.

As for Liam, he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Eric knew that Liam was making things difficult for Steffy, he knew that it would be a shock to someone's ego to find out they may not be the father of their wife’s child. Liam wasn’t blameless, he tried to act like he did nothing to warrant any of this. For months his granddaughter told her husband that she should be put first, that their marriage should be a priority, but Liam always made excuses. He kept putting Sally above his own marriage. And then he cheated on her granddaughter with said woman. He didn’t like the fact that his granddaughter was gaslit, made to feel as if she was the crazy one, making something out of nothing but she was only proven right when Liam kissed Sally.

He would never approve Steffy drowning her sorrows with Bill, but it just disgusted him how Liam could treat Steffy with such vitriol, while she was pregnant knowing that stress was the worst thing she could be given. It showed him that he didn't care, he couldn't get past his ego and was doing everything he could to hurt her.

And the fact that he was here with Hope showed him everything he needed to see. He felt guilty that he listened to Brooke and revived HFTF without consulting his granddaughter. He had told the family that he was taking a step away from FC and trying to enjoy his retirement, but him overstepping and not letting Steffy be the leader she would like to be, upset him after the fact. He didn't think of it like that at the time, but when he had time to think about it, he realized that he never did that with Ridge or Rick or anyone else who ran the company.

But even with the difficult circumstances Steffy had made HFTF a success. It was much more successful though than the first go around, they actually generated a profit. He knew that Brooke was upset that Hope didn’t have as much contribution to the line as she did last time, but Eric wasn’t going to challenge results .His granddaughter had been aggressive and actually rolled out the collection early. She had made it her mission to integrate the line as much as she could with existing lines and making it fit with the tone of all the lines. He agreed with her that HFTF was smarter. Initials work better than phrases. He couldn’t argue with the data that the longer the line’s name was the less successful it tended to be.

He actually saw the Hope was working more this go around with the line being the spokesmodel for the brand then she did when she had more autonomy. He wasn’t going to change it because one it wasn't his call and two it was working. He told as much to Brooke and he didn't care if it didn't make her happy to hear… He couldn’t risk the company going into dire financial straits just to make an ex-wife happy.

It had been about seven hours since Steffy had been admitted to the hospital. The doctors felt confident that the longer they could go without her giving birth the better. It was important even if it could just be a few hours or a day, the longer the baby stayed in the better.

Liam had started to get antsy because he was under the impression that if Steffy’s water broke that she would be giving birth, but all he kept hearing was Steffy was stable but there was no updates other than that.

The good thing about Steffy not giving birth yet was that her parents were able to make it. They had come with Thomas to be with Steffy… They wanted her to have the support system that she needed.

Taylor didn’t even bother stopping home, she made the taxi go straight from the airport to the hospital. When she got there she was happy to see that most of the family in LA had come to support Steffy. When she saw that Liam and Hope were there, she could feel her blood rising. She didn’t have time to think about them or what she wanted to say to them because her daughter needed her.

Eric had directed them to Steffy’s room, as soon as Taylor had opened the door, she felt the overwhelming urge to protect her daughter. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to make sure that her daughter felt safe and loved.

“Hey baby, Mama is here…” Taylor felt a little emotional. Her daughter was going to give birth and there was no other place she'd rather be.

She went over to Steffy, Bridget had told Steffy to stay on her left side. Taylor would have made the same recommendation, so she went to her daughter and sat down in the seat. The smile that she got from Steffy had light up her world.

She knew that she shouldn’t have listened to her daughter, Steffy was always trying to make sure that everyone else was okay, she didn’t want to deprive Douglas of his grandmother, but that’s not how Taylor saw it. She could be Douglas’s grandmother from anywhere. But right now she needed to be Steffy’s mother right there.

“Hey mom, I missed you so much.” Steffy could think of nothing else to say. She missed her mom; it was as simple as that. She was afraid when her water broke that her mother wouldn't be there to help her. She was thankful that the baby hadn’t come yet.

Ridge had come closer to his wife, he wanted to see his daughter’s face. It was hard for him knowing that Steffy was going through a hard time. All he ever wanted was his children to be happy.

“Hey sweetheart…”

“Hi daddy, you look nice…”

“Yeah I must be, one look at you makes me feel good always.”

Thomas made his way over and started cracking jokes... That was what he was always good for… He always knew how to make his sisters laugh and feel calm. He took his job as big bro seriously, it didn’t matter how old they got, he would always lookout for his sisters as long as he lived. He knew that this pregnancy was tough on his sister, he wasn’t looking to make it any tougher.

He was elated when his sister finally left Liam in a dust. He wanted to beat Liam’s face in when he made his sister feel like shit. He didn’t want his sister to be a punching bag for anyone. This was supposed to be her husband, but he treated her like she was the scum under his shoe. He didn’t understand it, he didn’t care what his sister did or didn't do. He thought it was very outrageous that Liam could ever think that his transgressions were just blips and his sister’s were the end of the world.

As the hours went by, Steffy’s contractions started getting more intense… They started to come closer together. Taylor had started to look at her watch and told Steffy to squeeze every time she felt a contraction. She really did not want her daughter giving birth right now because it was so early but at this point whatever happened, happened.

Every time she saw her daughter wince in pain she felt like they were getting closer to the inevitable. She had asked her daughter if she would like any pain medication to make it easier for when she gave birth.

Steffy told her unequivocally that they better get as much epidural in her as possible. It may Taylor laugh that Steffy still had her sense of humor even going through intense contractions. She knew that the power of being in high spirits was only going to help. The better the mood Steffy was in, the better for the baby.

Steffy’s OB had been checking in back and forth. She didn’t like the fact that the baby was early, but this is where they were, so they just dealt with it. It was about three more hours and the contractions were coming in at pace that made Taylor and Bridget know that the baby was coming.

Steffy’s moans of pain only increased as the time went on. She couldn’t wait for them to put the epidural in her. She felt better with the pain, but she could still feel the pressure. Taylor had checked Steffy again and saw that she was pretty dilated, she asked Ridge to alert the medical team.

When the team came, they started setting everything up. It felt like a calm calamity in Steffy’s body. She couldn’t believe she was at this point. She was going to have a baby. She had been waiting years for this moment.

When Steffy’s OB told her that it was okay to push, she did. She was ready to get this over with. She felt such a heavy pressure within her. She had the overwhelming urge to push until she couldn’t. Her doctor told her to wait. They wanted to time it and made sure that everything stayed coordinated. When Steffy pushed again, her doctor told her to stop.

She could hear all the medical professionals talking to each other. She looked to her mother to make sense of it all. By the grim look on her mother’s face she knew that something bad happened. They had told her that the baby was in distress. The fetal heartbeat was higher than normal, this started to make Steffy panic. Her mother told her that she needed to calm down. The less distressed she made herself it would be better off for the child. Steffy knew that she had to listen to her mother… She wanted the baby to be okay.

The doctors monitored her and the baby, they felt confident when they saw that the baby's heartbeat was in a range that was more preferable. They told her that she was going to have to give them some big pushes because they would be able to help the child outside of the womb better then within it. Steffy started to push with all her might, she wanted them to make sure that her daughter was going to be okay.

When she gave her final push, the doctors were pulling her daughter out… She couldn’t hear any crying which made her feel antsy. She kept asking her mother and Bridget for answers, when they didn’t say anything it just made her even more worried. Then she could hear the baby cry which helped ease her just a little bit. They told her that the baby was still a preemie, so she was not out of the woods. They had her hold her daughter to help initiate skin to skin contact. It would help her daughter get more acclimated within the world if she felt her mother’s touch. They decided that it would be best if they kept the baby in the room so Steffy could be close with the child.

Even though her daughter was early her OB was telling her that it’s not entirely uncommon and as long as they take the right precautions her daughter would be okay. Taylor was already putting red booties on the baby, she knew that science and the medical professionals we're going to be the key to her granddaughter survival however she was still going to put the red booties no matter what.

Steffy had held her child and she felt all of her stress melt away. Her daughter was here and that was the only thing that mattered. She felt more confident in herself when her baby latched on and she could feed her. Taylor and Bridget had been telling her that breast feeding is the best way to bond and she was just happy that it came easy for her daughter. Steffy had been so tired from the birth and beforehand, she fell asleep while baby Phoebe was still feeding.

Taylor had carefully picked up her granddaughter and put her back in the baby cot that the doctors have brought in. They started to let some of the family in and everyone marveled at the newest Forrester in the fold. Eric marveled that he now had a second great grandchild. Ridge felt so proud and happy that his grandchild came into the world under the circumstances. Everyone had stayed quiet so Steffy could sleep. They started to shuffle out of the room so they could leave Taylor and Bridget with Steffy and the baby.

“What do you want me to do about Liam?” Bridget how wanted to know how Taylor wanted to play it.

“You can send him in but only him…” Taylor was still unsure about the decision but they were all going to protect Steffy at all costs.

Bridget had left the room to go get Liam and let him meet his daughter.

As she made her way to the waiting room, she could see some Spencers, Hope and Brooke. She had to keep herself from sneering at the sight of Brooke. She wasn’t going to give her any kind of attention even if that's what she wanted.

“Liam you can come meet the baby, but only you…” Bridget didn’t bother saying anything else because she knew if she kept her mouth open, she was going to have plenty to say.

Liam wanted to challenge Bridget, but he knew that it was going to be a losing battle because she was flanked by almost all of her family. She also had a face of stone and she had put her foot down that Liam wasn’t going to interrupt Steffy’s life anymore.

So he did what he could, he got up so he could meet his daughter.

He followed Bridget to the room, when he got in there, he could see that Steffy was sleeping. Her back was to the door and she wasn’t really moving.

“Don’t even look at in daughter’s direction, I let you come in so you could meet your daughter and that’s all you’ll do. So get to it…” Taylor was in no mood to indulge anyone, she was still very upset at the fact that Liam was the cause of this.

“Liam you heard her; we don’t have all day. Phoebe is going to sleep soon so I don’t have time to wait for you to get a clue.” Bridget wasn’t going to be anything less than short with Liam. She had already told him that she couldn’t stand him.

Liam felt like he was in a war zone, he had two angry women who look like they would rip him to shreds if he said anything they didn't like, so he kept his mouth shut and went to look at his daughter. He was a little upset at the fact that he wasn't consulted on the name. Steffy had been doing this the whole pregnancy, in his mind he thought he should be at every doctor’s appointment, every decision that Steffy made he should get final approval on. He was the father and Steffy wasn’t seemingly understanding that or she just didn't care. He felt like she was trying to get back at him because he was mad at the fact that she slept with his father. He wanted to make sure that she respected Hope as the child stepmother, she needed to consult with them on any decision she was going to make for their child.

He felt as if Steffy was mad that he decided that he was moving on with his life and she was using the pregnancy to try and punish him. He decided that he wasn’t going to give in, but that’s when she started siccing her aunt and mother on him. He felt like they were very hostile combatants and anything that he wanted for the child wasn't met with a good reception.

“She’s beautiful…” Liam couldn’t think of anything else to say. He thought his daughter was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

“That she is, she must take after my daughter…” Taylor said with a monotone voice.

Liam had held his tongue because the only thing that scared him was an angry Taylor. It seemed as if anything he said could set her off.

“Would it be okay if my fiancée--"

“Liam I’m gonna stop you there, don't bother trying my patience. After everything that you pulled today, screaming at my daughter... putting her life in jeopardy, putting my granddaughter’s life at risk, you are in the room now, but it was not an easy delivery, and that is thanks to you. You do everything the way you want to do it. You don’t care about other people’s feelings and clearly you don’t care about my daughter’s health. I know she has told you before that this was high risk and you have spent her whole pregnancy trying to punish her and you got your wish, you have made this experience horrific for her at every turn. She had been on bed rest for the last two months. Your constant need to control her, gave her high blood pressure, I don’t know what your goal was with all of this, but I want you to know something I will hate you for as long as you live, if you ever try to weaponize my granddaughter, I promise you it will be the worst mistake of your life. I have tried to be cordial with you and I have tried to be civil, but that ends here if you ever overstep your bounds again you will see what it's like for me to be unkind. My daughter even did you a kindness and gave Phoebe your mother's name as her middle name. This is a new day Liam; this is a day that your daughter is born but it is also the last day you think that you can control my daughter. If you ever do a stunt again that hurts my daughter, you will find what it's like to be my enemy. None of my enemies have ever been victorious against me. My granddaughter is getting sleepy you can leave…” Taylor had said everything she needed to say. She didn’t even mention the fact Steffy hyperventilates when she hears his ringtone.

She was satisfied when she could see Liam take a gulp.

He had started to put his daughter back into the crib. Bridget was right next to it making sure that he could sense the tone in the room. The days of him trying to control and tormenting Steffy were over.

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**happyreader this was one of the photos that inspired me for this particular story ;)**

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	15. Chapter 15

Hope had felt helpless, when Steffy was rushed to the hospital, she felt like her heart was in her throat.

They kept getting updates that Steffy was stable and so it’s a baby. Liam had kept complaining that this was taking too long. She started to get worked up at the fact that he just wouldn't shut up. It was as if he had no clue how birth worked. It could be 15 minutes it could be a day or two. No one could predict how labor would go. She thought it was a good idea that the baby wasn't coming yet. The way Steffy was in office made her scared. She didn’t know what she would do if something happened to Steffy’s child.

She didn’t know what she would do if anything happened to Steffy. That’s what scared her the most... She didn’t want to have to live in a world where Steffy possibly got hurt or worse. Her guilt wouldn’t ease if anything happened to the baby. She wished she could take it all back, she wished she could go back in time and not take Liam’s side. She felt all of her anger and frustration that she had for Steffy melt away, she felt churlish and stupid at her reaction. She was mad at the fact that Steffy had sex with Bill, but she had no right to pick fights with Steffy over it. She may not like Bill, but she had no valid reason to be so upset with Steffy.

She just hated that it took this event for her to realize that she needed stop. She couldn’t go home; it didn’t matter how long that this labor took. She didn’t care if she had to stay in a waiting room for days. She couldn’t leave, she felt like if she did and something happened and she wasn't there, she might breakdown.

When Steffy had finally given birth, she felt a sense of relief. The baby had been born, it wasn’t smooth sailing yet because the baby was early, but the baby was alive, that's what really mattered. She saw Steffy’s family filing in and out, ready to see the newest addition to their family… Hope thought to herself this could have been her as well. When she first heard the news from Steffy about being pregnant, she felt like this was a second chance. She will get to be a parent loving a child… Parenting a child with the love of her life…

She couldn’t see past her own hurt, it was a selfish impulse, she was blinded by a rage that had nothing to do with Steffy in the first place. It was easy to assign blame to the first person she saw. She walked out… She walked out on the best thing that happened to her. She felt like she was on autopilot, it was like an out of body experience. She wanted to manifest that hurt that she felt and put it towards someone else. She should have put it on the person who deserved it most. She should have given Bill a piece of her mind. She should have told Liam that he needed to stop.

He wasn’t being productive doing this. he was doing more harm than good by backing Steffy into a wall. They were lucky that this time nothing happened but who knows what could have happened. This behavior had to stop; she couldn’t be party to hurting stuffy. She already hurt her twice by walking out, the least Hope thought she could do now was tried to protect Steffy and her child.

She waited for hours to hear word. Liam was allowed to go see the baby. He didn’t stay in the room that long… She knew that Taylor and Bridget would see to it that he didn’t hurt Steffy. She could imagine that Taylor made herself very clear on what was going to happen... Liam didn’t tell her what that was… But she knew that whatever had transpired finally shut him up.

He had told her that he was ready to go, but Hope wasn’t. She told Liam that she was going to go back to work, she would just change in shower there. He just looked at her funny, but he left. Help me to show of it and exited. What she really did was walk around the building a couple of times... She kept going to the waiting room on the sly to see if anyone was still there. She had seen Bridget and Taylor coming out of Steffy’s room. She could hear Taylor said that she was gonna stop by at home to change her clothes and get some comfortable clothes for Steffy to wear. Bridget just nodded and told her that she was going to go to the cafeteria to get some coffee.

Hope had seen her opportunity to get into Steffy’s room, she snuck in and she saw that Steffy was sleeping. She thought that this would be better because she didn’t know how Steffy would react to her. She saw the baby in the crib and she couldn't help but feeling outpouring of love surging through her. This was Steffy’s child, she didn't think there could be anything as lovely as that. She marveled at the child for a little bit. She didn’t think that she could fall in love so quickly, but here she was admiring this little girl.

She looks so peaceful; you would never think that there was any problems with the labor. Hope was thankful that nothing bad happened to the child. She looks perfectly content sleeping. There was nothing so right in the world than seeing Steffy and her child sleeping peacefully. Finally getting the rest that they deserved but hardly ever got.

She sat at the seat that was closest to Steffy’s bed. She slipped her hands within Steffy’s. She could feel the tears running hot from her eyes. She could feel nothing but regret. Even though Steffy and the baby we’re seemingly okay, it did not ease her guilt… not even one bit.

“I’m so sorry honey… I wish I could take everything back. I shouldn’t have left. And I shouldn’t have treated you so terribly. You were always there to protect me and love me… but I didn’t give you the same courtesy when you needed it the most. I messed up so badly... I’m not asking you to forgive me, I can’t even forgive myself for the hurt that I put you through. And I’m not just talking about yesterday. I’m talking about all of it. I should have chosen you; I should have known that whatever came our way coming we could have done it together. I’m such a coward, I can only do this while you’re sleeping. I can’t blame you for being angry at me. I’m angry at me, but honey I’m going to change. I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure that this never happens again. I don’t know how to live in a world without you even if we aren’t together… it doesn't matter. Your happiness means more to me than anything.”

It didn’t take Bridget long to ever get her coffee here. She used to work here; she knew everyone… If she wanted coffee from the cafeteria, she knew exactly where to go and who to see to make it happen. She had walked back to Steffy’s room, sipping her black coffee hoping that it would keep her up. She hadn’t slept in over 36 hours. And she wasn’t going to anytime soon. She and Taylor had devised a plan that they were going to rotate between her, Taylor and Ridge. That way round the clock so Steffy wouldn’t have to be alone.

When she had come back to the room, she saw that Hope was there. She had already started to get upset; she was about to say something when she heard Hope speak.

She could hear Hope’s tearful apology, she could feel the emotion behind it. It seemed as if Hope was remorseful for her part in this. It was nice for Bridget to hear the Hope wasn't shifting blame or trying to mitigate her part in this. She was taking ownership for her fuck up. Of course Steffy was sleeping, so it really didn't amount to much, but it did make Bridget feel that Hope had the capacity to see what she was doing wasn't right. She had to contend that her actions could have led to some terrible consequences. Consequences that she would not even have to bear.

“What are you doing here Hope?” Bridget asked as if she didn’t hear Hope’s that side apology. She knew that it was an intimate apology only meant for Steffy’s ears… Well Steffy’s ears if she happened to be awake…

Hope was freaked out at the fact that Bridget had come back so soon. She thought that she would be able to see Steffy and get out before anyone could find out. But here she was caught red handed.

Bridget had a hard look in her eye, and it wasn’t like Hope was blaming her. Bridget had told her that she needed to back off. Steffy was in the hospital thanks to them. She could feel a fresh wave of guilt when she saw Bridget’s face.

“I didn’t come to cause trouble I promise. I don’t want anything bad to happen to Steffy.” Hope didn’t know how to make Bridget believe that. She knew that Sally told the truth, she didn't even blame the woman.

“You have a lot of nerve coming in here… How could you even think that this was okay?”

“I just wanted to make sure that she was okay...”

“Outside. Now!”

They both left the room quietly. Bridget couldn’t trust herself to not wake up Steffy or the baby.

As they made their way outside, Hope started to feel as if her heart was being even faster.

“What did I tell you when you decided to come to LA?” Bridget had thought she made herself clear the first time.

Hope started to think about her conversation with Bridget.

“You told me to minimize the damage and not hurt Steffy.”

“Does this look minimized to you?” Bridget could appreciate that Hope was apologetic, but she was not in a place to forgive.

“Bridget, it was never supposed to be like this. I never meant for something so horrible to happen, if I could take it all back I would. I feel like my heart has been ripped into pieces. I never wanted Steffy in any kind of harm's way. I know that you told me not to hurt Steffy. I don’t wanna hurt Steffy anymore but I know I did. I don’t know what came over me, I was blaming Steffy for things that I shouldn’t have blamed her for and I know that. I hated that it took me this reality check to see how much I was really hurting her. I’m so sorry, you trusted me, aunt Donna trusted me, Steffy trusted me and I broke it. I know it and I’m not asking for another chance it is too late… I shut her out and boxed her in. I know that I will always pay for that. And just promise you that I won’t do anything to hurt her again.”

Bridget knew that she could believe Hope, but it didn't mean that anything was changing. She didn’t know if she wanted any kind of relationship with her. It took a lot for her to even think about having any kind of relationship with the reminder of Brooke’s betrayal she didn’t blame Hope for any of that. No that betrayal was all Brooke and Deacon, but she didn’t go out of her way to have some kind of sisterly bond with Hope, in meant having Brooke in her life and that was something that she wouldn't do.

She thought that she would feel better when Hope was an adult. She was able to accept it more… a relationship with her. She tried and she thought she had succeeded. Hope had told her that she too was estranged from Brooke. Bridget, I thought it was only a matter of time, so she gave the relationship a try. She didn’t want to be caught in the middle between Steffy and Hope. She didn’t want to choose any sides. But Hope was able to wreck things twice. She was even able to still have some kind of relationship with her, when she told her that things didn’t work out with Steffy. But she had to turn her back when both she and Liam did this ridiculous tag team of bullying and belittling Steffy her whole pregnancy.

“You won't have the opportunity to hurt Steffy. Hope even if you are sorry, what does your sorry even do? It doesn’t undo all of the hurt and harm that you and Liam inflicted. How is Steffy supposed to ever trust either of you? How is she supposed to trust you with the most precious thing in her life? I think you should go. And if you really are so sorry, you should be apologizing to Steffy when her eyes are open, she should be able to judge the veracity of your apology.”

Bridget disappeared into the room and Hope was left by herself. She knew that Bridget was right, she was too scared to apologize to Steffy while she was awake… She was afraid of the answer that she would be given, that she wasn’t forgiven, nothing would ever be forgotten. She needed to have the fantasy that things would be okay because she was pregnant now and she wanted to be able for their children to have some kind of relationship. She just hoped that it was still possible…


	16. Chapter 16

Steffy was trying to enjoy her maternity leave; it was proving to be very difficult.

She was happy to have her mother there with her because she didn't think that she could do it alone. she had asked her dad if he could help her run the company. She knew that it was a lot to ask of him, but it seemed that Ridge was all for helping her. It was nice to have her parents by her side. Bridget was still living in LA so she could help with the baby.

Taylor had thought it would be a good idea to start working again so she opened up her practice. She decided that she was going to continue with her four-day work weeks while Steffy and Bridget took care of the baby.

Steffy had decided that her best course was to hammer out a custody agreement with the courts. She really didn’t want to be alone in any room that Liam was in. Just seeing him made her stress levels rise. Even though she was in postpartum her doctor warned her that she still needed to avoid stress. Her body was still trying to adapt back to normal, but her blood pressure could still rise so it was best to avoid any kind of trigger. It was good that she happened to be with people because it was very likely that she could have passed out and wouldn’t have gotten medical attention.

Family court seemed to be backed up because the court date was two months from now and baby Phoebe was already three months old. She found it funny when Hope revealed that she was pregnant. She didn’t try to dwell on the fact because Hope also had the misfortune of being pregnant by Liam.

Just thinking about Hope or Liam made her mad all over again so she tried to never think about them or what led to her giving birth to Phoebe early. Liam was so upset when she named the child without his approval. She didn’t feel that she owed Liam anything, her daughter was Phoebe Forrester and that was the end of it. He put her through so much stress, he had the audacity to get angry at her because she didn’t put Cooper or Spencer or call the baby Kelly, and he had the nerve to call her selfish. She never told him that her mother changed mind, Taylor had kept Hamilton as Phoebe’s middle name. She would have been able to deliver on time if he hadn’t just showed up unannounced ready to badger her, so in Taylor’s mind she felt Steffy owed Liam nothing. Liam insisted on calling Steffy’s daughter Kelly all the time.

She knew that Liam was upset at the fact that he was barred from being able to come to her home and see their daughter.

She told Liam if he wanted to see her child then he would have to get in contact with her and they could meet up at the cliff house but there was no way in hell that he was coming to her home. It was an off-limits place for her, she didn’t need him coming there at all times of the day to harass her.

Steffy had just put Phoebe down for a nap when she heard the doorbell ring. She had not been expecting anyone, but she thought to herself maybe it was just a package. When she went to open the door, she saw someone does she never seen before. She didn’t see any uniform delivery so she knew that it couldn’t be FedEx or UPS.

“Are you Stephanie Forrester?”

“Yes, I am… why are you asking?”

“You have been served.”

The guy just left; she didn’t understand who was suing her… If it was about business, then they should have served FC.

When she read the lawsuit, she started to flip. Liam was trying to sue her in the custody suit, she thought he was just unbelievable. He was trying to say that she was committing parental alienation. She thought that was funny because he was trying to harass her and using their daughter to do it. Just because she didn’t acquiesce to every single demand of his didn't mean she was alienating him. She was just trying to protect her freaking sanity and she didn't think that denying him entry into her home constitute it as parental alienation. She was putting up boundaries for her own protection. She still has nightmares about that day in her office. It was so touch and go that didn’t even know if Phoebe was going to survive and Liam had the nerve to do this.

She thought to herself he was always saying that he didn't wanna be anything like his father and yet he just couldn't help himself. He didn't seem to give a damn about anything she was going through. Even the fact that her labor was a difficult one and he was still trying to harass her.

Steffy started to tear up because she couldn't believe this, she was being taken to court as if she was the bad person. It was never enough for him. She never knew when it was going to be enough, when his cup of retribution was going to be full. Steffy got up and she started to feel weird, she started to see her vision blur and she didn't know why everything went black and she passed out.

There was no one in the house but Steffy and the baby, so no one heard when she hit her head hard on the tile floor.

Bridget decided that she was going to go home after her visit with her father, she was thinking if she should order something to eat or if she should just wait ‘til she gets home and just make something. She decided that she was just going to make something because she didn’t really want to wait outside. She thought that Steffy might have been going stir crazy anyways.

Bridget parked her car and then went up to the door. As she was trying to fish out her keys from her bag, she could hear the distant sound of crying… A baby crying. When the crying didn’t stop it made Bridget worried, so she tried to find her keys faster, but it was seemingly difficult.

When she finally opened the door, she was horrified to see Steffy on the floor, there was blood on the floor. It looked like Steffy fell and hit her head. Bridget went into doctor mode and try to assess how much damage there was.

She called 911 so they could send an ambulance to the house. She quickly went and got the baby… She figured that it could have just been a dirty diaper. But when she looked at the time, she saw that Kelly was supposed to be fed. Steffy had made it her top priority to have Kelly fed almost every three hours. She saw that it was two hours after the time that Steffy would normally feed Kelly and a horrified her to think that stuff he could have been passed out on the floor for hours unconscious.

The only thing that made her feel a little bit better was the fact that Steffy was breathing on her own, but nothing could be assessed until they got to the hospital. When the paramedics came Bridget was telling them as much information as possible. She rode in the ambulance to the hospital and contacted Taylor and Ridge letting them know that they needed to get there immediately.

The ER doctor did an initial examination and found that there was a possible brain bleed and that they would need to do additional tests to conclude. This made Bridget really worried because if they couldn’t get the brain bleed under control then it would take surgery. Bridget told them that they needed to put a rush on it, she wasn't gonna accept anything less.

When Taylor and Ridge got to the hospital Bridget still didn’t have any answers for them. They wanted to know how in the hell did Steffy pass out. Bridget told them the full scope of what the doctors told her, it just killed Taylor.

When the doctor came back, he told them he was afraid that his hypothesis had been correct. Steffy was suffering from blunt force trauma to the head from her fall. The doctor had believed that there was some stressing trigger that made Steffy’s blood pressure spike that led her to passing out. However, the blunt force trauma came from Steffy possibly losing motor function before her fall so she wasn't able to stop herself or mitigate the severity of the fall. He told him that she had an active bleeder, it was his recommendation that they like to do surgery. He told them that Steffy had been passed out for hours which made it nearly impossible for them to just give her the regular course of treatment to minimize the damage from the brain bleed, surgery was going to be the best option under the circumstances.

Bridget and Taylor just looked at each other knowing that if this was the assessment then it had to be correct. Ridge felt out of place with all of the medical speak but he could trust that his wife and his sister would make the best choices for Steffy.

“Doctor do the surgery. Save my daughter.” Taylor had to sit down because they wouldn't really know anything until after the surgery. She knew that when Steffy woke up she would be upset that her hair was all gone. But she would rather have a bald angry daughter, then a possible one with a full head of hair and dead. She refused to lose any more children.

They knew that they needed to get the baby home because she was starting to get hungry and Steffy kept breast milk in the fridge. Ridge had volunteered to go home and be with the baby while Bridget and Taylor stayed… He made them promise that as soon as they get any word that they will call him.

When the surgery was a success, Bridget and Taylor just hugged each other happy that the first step was done. The doctor told them from a vanity side that they only shaved a small part of Steffy’s head, it was a good thing because the brain bleed was just in one location. She would have a scar but with her having such thick hair hardly anyone would ever know besides her.

Taylor was happy to hear that at least so if we could have some form of normalcy. She asked the doctor which anesthetic he used because she wanted to know when Steffy was going to wake up. Bridget and Taylor had made their way over to Steffy’s room so they could be with her when she woke up. It would be a while, but Taylor wanted the first thing Steffy to see was her face. She got a call from Ridge and she told Bridget that she would be taking it outside.

When Taylor got outside, she told Ridge that she could talk.

Ridge said that he believed he knew the reason of what made Steffy pass out. He preceded to tell Taylor that Steffy was being sued by Liam for parental alienation. Taylor had kicked the wall because she couldn't believe that it was possible for her to hate Liam as much as she did already… This took the cake, Steffy had already been compromised with giving an early birth and now this. Liam was never going to get his pound of flesh. This kind of revenge was just evil to her. She went back into the room and just sat down.

Bridget can see that Taylor looks so defeated and it made her want to know what happened.

Taylor had told Bridget what Ridge found. The shock and anger that was being emitted from Bridget's body scared her. She doesn’t remember a time where she was so mad. She honestly felt like Brooke had a hand in this. She felt so disgusted and upset. As much as she loved the baby, she couldn't help but think if Phoebe didn’t exist, they wouldn’t be waiting for Steffy to wake up from brain surgery.


	17. Chapter 17

Liam felt confident that he would be heard, he was tired of waiting for some hearing to determine what custody was going to look like… He decided that he was going to speed up the pace.

He knew what Steffy was trying to do, she was taking it upon herself to punish him for choosing to move on, he felt like she was being childish and manipulative. She couldn’t get it through her head that he was moving on with Hope. They were having their own family and he felt that Steffy was trying to retaliate because she was jealous. The fact that he had to wait an extra two months just to be heard in family court wasn't good enough for him.

He didn’t like the fact that if he wanted to see his child, he had to call Steffy ahead of time and see if she was free. She didn’t let him go over to her house, he thought he should be able to see his child whenever. Steffy said she wasn’t comfortable with that… She said the only way that this was going to work is if they met on a neutral ground. She said the cliff house would be the best option.

Liam didn’t like it because sometimes it wasn't Steffy that came with the baby… Most of the time it was actually Bridget or Taylor with the baby. Liam didn’t like the idea of her siccing her dogs on him. He felt like it was an immature act, she couldn’t deal with it, so she was using her mother and her aunt, he thought it was pathetic.

He decided that he was going to get a lawyer involved, he asked for all of the options available. His lawyer explained that they could always do an emergency hearing, but it wasn’t in his best interest to. Liam didn’t wanna hear any of that, he wanted to make sure that he was able to see his child anytime he liked.

He told his lawyer that he wanted to have an emergency hearing and do it on the grounds of parental alienation. She needed to see that he wasn't going to be toyed with. He had about enough of these obstacles.

When he got the text from his lawyer telling him that the motion had been filed and Stephanie would soon be served, it made Liam feel more at ease. He felt more confident… He knew that if you went to family court that the judge could be impressed that he was a father trying to be involved in his child’s life.

When Hope came home she saw that Liam was just sitting on the sofa on his phone. She dreaded coming home because since that day in Steffy’s office she felt horrible. She could still hear the sadness Steffy’s voice in her head. Steffy was screaming for them to leave her alone and when Hope was finally going to listen she saw that Steffy’s water had broken. They were the reason that the baby came early. She felt so guilty and she just couldn't shake the feeling. Hope knew if the baby didn’t make it that she would have never forgiven herself. She knew that Steffy would never forgive her either.

The only way she was getting updates were through Liam. She was happy to know that the baby was progressing nicely despite the circumstances of her birth.

“Hey Hope…”

“Hi Liam…”

Ever since that day it has been tension between the two of them. Liam didn’t put much stock into it because Hope was pregnant. He thought that they were going to have a bond that was gonna be unbroken. She was going to get over what happened that day, she would have to because they were going be a family.

“How was your day?”

“It was fine, I had a meeting with the team. We decided that I’m going to do all of my travel for HFTF early, so when I progress in the pregnancy I can either just do some videos or work from home.”

“Hey that’s really good to hear you know we should really take it easy. We don’t want anything to happen with the baby…”

Hope thought that it was ironic that Liam was talking about the safety of this baby when they didn’t extend Steffy that kind of courtesy.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want that. So what were you up to today?” Hope knew that he couldn’t be getting up too much because he was unemployed. He decided that he wasn’t going to work for his father since the revelation of him possibly being the father of Steffy baby. Even though Liam had been proven to be the father, he really didn’t want to see Bill at all. Bill retaliated and cut Liam off, so they were staying at the cabin on Brooke’s property.

“Not much I just was talking to my attorney about the upcoming custody situation…”

“Why would you be talking about that now I thought there was still two months before the court date?”

“Well I decided that I could only wait that long, I had an emergency hearing scheduled. I’m not trying to wait two months just so a judge can tell me what my custody is going to look like. I’m going to sleep this up, I had stuff you serve today. My lawyer said that he could do parental alienation so that's what we're going with.”

Hope was in shock that Liam could ever do something like this. She had no clue what would possess him to do something like this, this was outrageous an extreme. Ever since that day in Steffy’s office, Hope felt like Liam was trying to harass Steffy. She saw firsthand how it was hurting Steffy. It broke her heart to see Steffy so upset. She promised herself since that day that that wasn’t going to add to Steffy’s stress anymore. She gave up her plan of trying to spite Steffy. She was just mad at herself that she got pregnant with Liam’s child.

“Liam you need to withdraw that petition…”

Liam looked at Hope like she was crazy. He couldn’t believe that she was taking up with Steffy’s side. He should be able to have his daughter sleep under their roof sometime. He should be able to see his daughter whenever he liked.

“Hope how can you even say that to me. Steffy’s trying to punish me because I’m happy with you. Do you really want her to get away with doing something like that? Using my child to get her way. Throwing tantrums…”

“Liam, I don’t care. I don’t think that Steffy is using the baby to try and control you. What you are seeming to forget is that this is a newborn we’re talking about? They shouldn’t be sleeping in multiple places. They should be acclimated to the home that they are in. It also makes it very difficult for them to get restful sleep if feel disoriented sleeping for an extended period somewhere other than home. Whether you like it or not the baby’s home is with Steffy. You doing something like this after everything that happened is disgusting. If you do not take back that petition today, we are done. You cannot use threats and coercion through the court system to try and control Steffy. You may not be able to see past your anger. Steffy could have lost her life, your daughter could have lost her life coming early. I know all about that so I’m going to just tell you this once. Stop trying to bully Steffy. You are not doing it for the baby… you’re not doing it for your supposed rights… you’re doing it because you want to spite her. You have an anger towards your dad that you need to resolve. I don’t even like Bill, but you can’t use Steffy as your punching bag. I don’t want to be with someone who does stuff like that. I can’t trust you with my child if you think that is okay. So you decide Liam right now, either get the fuck out of my house and you'll have another custody issue to deal with or rescind that petition immediately.”

Liam was flabbergasted because he had no clue that this was going to be Hope’s reaction. He felt that she should be supporting his decision, but he figured that it was something tied to pregnancy hormones that was making her go a little crazy. But she looks so sure in the face that it made him think twice. The last thing that he wanted was to lose Hope too. His marriage with Steffy had already imploded and he was going to have a child with Hope, another chance to have a family.

Hope just stood there, she stared at him until he picked up the phone.

She decided that she wasn’t going to leave until she was sure that he told his lawyer so full this frivolous lawsuit.

She also decided to stay with Liam, she wasn't going to have him try to make calls behind her back when she left the room. She knew that he thought she was naïve, maybe she was once upon a time… But she knew better than anyone that Liam was always full of shit. He lied through his teeth and could manipulate anyone and everyone. The things that he blamed other people for doing were always the same things that he did.

Now she felt like she was stuck, she was having a baby with someone she hated. She hated the person she was with him. Her mother kept saying that they were destiny… That they were true love. This kind of love made Hope feel dead inside. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, so much has already happened that she wish she could take back.

She felt trapped, she was now stuck in a marriage with Liam. She would have egg on her face if she were to divorce him now. She was on her third marriage, married to the same man twice and having his baby… after he just had a child. She could already see the headlines. The first thing that Steffy told her when she came back was, they were not going to have any negative publicity. She couldn’t think of anything worse then seeing quickie divorce after quickie marriage after her husband was just divorced by her boss… pregnant and alone. She couldn’t afford any kind of scandal for HFTF. Not after she kept claiming that she would do nothing to jeopardize the brand. She was the face of it, these were one of the times that she wished that she never had gone back to Forrester. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have to worry about how her professional life would be perceived.

She was just going to deal with the fact that she was going to stay married to Liam. She was going to make the best of it, Hope hoped that her daughter was going to be a good distraction from the fact that she was married to someone that she didn't love, while the only person she wanted to be with hated her with a passion that was justified.

Hope could hear Liam talking to his lawyer telling them that he wanted to withdraw the petition. His lawyer had asked him if he wanted to change his mind, but Liam said no he felt that this was going to be the right decision for them. They would just wait the two months to plead their case to the family court judge.

“Did that satisfy you Hope?”

“It’ll do Liam. If I ever hear you trying to sue Steffy then me and this baby are going to kick you out on the curb…”

Hope didn’t bother staying in a room at this point. She knew that she got her point across, she knew the best thing that she could tell Liam would be that he would be alone if he went back on his word. She knew that was his kryptonite and it worked.


	18. Chapter 18

When Steffy woke up she was confused, she didn’t know how she was in the hospital… she started to wonder if she was in some kind of accident… Her first thought was if Phoebe was okay. She tried to think about what she was doing last. She was just at home folding some laundry, she had just put Phoebe down for a nap. She couldn’t really remember anything after that.

She kept trying hard to figure out how she got here, but her head wasn’t letting her. It felt like she had so much pressure on her head. It was unlike any kind of feeling she ever had before. Sometimes she got headaches from a long day at Forrester, but those were just stress. She was on maternity leave; her dad was running the company. She had asked him if he could be a co-CEO with her, she needed the help, she didn't trust anyone more than her father to see her vision for the company.

“Baby, don't try to move… I know it’s a little confusing but you're in the hospital.” Taylor had been waiting for Steffy to wake up. There was no timetable for any kind of surgery especially one that involved the head. Steffy needed a lot of rest so was her mission to make sure that the room stayed quiet at all times.

“Mom…” Steffy felt like she was so thirsty, she could barely hear her voice. It was like she was whispering but she put more effort than that it just simply wasn’t getting out.

“Don't try to talk, your voice is very hoarse. I want you to drink some water and just try and get some rest. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere…”

Steffy did as her mother asked and took some sips of water but there was no way that she was going back to sleep now. She was in the hospital and she had no clue why...

“Mom why am I here? Is Phoebe okay?” Steffy's only worry was about her daughter. Need to know where Phoebe was.

“Phoebe’s fine baby, she’s with your dad. They are at home and she’s probably giving him hell.” Taylor tried to liven the mood a little bit.

“Why am I here mom?”

“I will tell you but I need you to promise me that you will stay calm…”

Steffy nodded but she really wasn’t sure if she could promise that.

“Okay, mom I’ll do my best but please tell me what’s going on?”

“Honey you fell down, you hit your head on the tile and you needed to have surgery because your brain was bleeding. It was blunt force trauma, but the doctors have gotten all of the bleeding under control and it's looking like you're gonna make a full recovery. You may feel like your head is killing you. But you’re definitely going to be okay.”

Steffy was a little freaked out at the fact that she fell down, she thought to herself was she sick or something?

“Why did I fall down? How come I didn’t somehow catch myself?”

“You had a blood pressure spike. Even though you gave birth your blood pressure is still trying to regulate itself. So stressful events can trigger a spike. The high blood pressure spike happened to make you pass out. When you passed out your body had no protection and you fell. When you fell it just happened to be that the tile floor in the living room was unforgiving to your body.” It still made Taylor upset to think about because had Bridget not come home, it could have been worse.

Steffy was trying to go through her head of what was so stressful that it would make her pass out and fall. She tried to replay everything she could remember. When she thought about again, she remembered the doorbell and the paper that was delivered to her. Liam was suing her in the grounds of parental alienation. She remembered the type of anger she was in because of the audacity.

She couldn’t believe that he was once again trying to flex some kind of power play over her life. She was tired of him using Phoebe doing it. She knew he was upset that it was mainly her mother going to cliff house with the baby. Just seeing Liam stressed her out so much she couldn’t do it anymore. She tried the first couple of times but she felt worse for her. She had to have multiple doctor’s appointments because of it. She got so stressed out that it was affecting her production of breast milk.

It was then that Steffy decided she couldn’t do it anymore. She needed to be able to feed Phoebe. She knew that formula could be used but her doctor told her that breast milk offered antibodies passed from her to Phoebe.

Taylor volunteered when Steffy told her that her milk production had sharply dropped. When Steffy stopped going her milk production steadily went back up. Her stress levels started getting better. Her blood pressure started to get better, but her OB and Taylor told her she wasn’t out of the woods. She had to stick with the plan. Steffy listened and kept work in her father’s hands. She focused only on her child and she felt better off for it.

She had a big setback with this. Steffy felt like she couldn’t win. She promised herself that she didn’t take care how long it would take but she was going to get her revenge against Liam and Hope. After everything with making her go into labor early, they do this. She didn’t understand why Hope couldn’t just be happy with the fact she was pregnant... Steffy thought to herself why the hell was Hope just parroting Liam and making her life hell. She remembered Hope right there helping Liam that day in her office.

Their bitterness was only landing Steffy in the hospital and she was damn tired. She wasn’t going to take this lying down... She didn’t know how or when, but she was going to make sure they both feel her wrath even if it was just an iota of what they put her through.

Taylor couldn’t tell what Steffy was thinking but something inside told her that Steffy was trying to remember what landed her in the hospital in the first place. She knew that Steffy trying to actively make herself remember might do more harm than good.

“Baby, please take it easy. You still have a concussion; I know that you want to remember what got you to the point of passing out but right now you really need to rest. Please can you do that for me?” Taylor was worried that Steffy could elongate her concussion by forcing herself to do too much too soon.

“Okay… I’ll take it easy, but can you make dad bring Phoebe? I want to see my baby...” Steffy was still finding it hard to make herself audible, her voice still sounded like she was whispering but it was a little better now.

She did what her mother asked and stop trying to think of Liam’s fucked up summons. Contemplating just the act of revenge made Steffy feel good.

It took about forty minutes but Ridge did come with baby Phoebe and Steffy felt better already. She couldn’t really lift her head without it hurting, Taylor told her not to strain her neck. Ridge brought his granddaughter closer so Steffy could be near her without compromising her.

Steffy felt like she could finally rest easier now. She didn’t last long at all; she fell asleep to the sounds of Phoebe laughing.

Taylor was happy to see that Steffy had fallen asleep, she would just prefer that her daughter let her brain just heal with minimal interruption.

“How are you doing my love?” Ridge knew that if this was difficult for him than it had to be ten times worse for his wife. Taylor had a connection to their children that surpassed his own. She was the only one who kept on believing that Steffy wasn’t lost to them when she had been kidnapped and presumed dead when she was a child... Ever since that ordeal he never questioned Taylor again. Even if she couldn’t logically explain it, he knew that his wife was right.

Taylor felt like breaking down and just crying. Why did this have to happen to her daughter? She couldn’t cry yet because Phoebe was in the room.

Ridge could sense the despair and sadness in Taylor’s expression, he would do anything to take it away.

“Ridge when will it be enough? This… I can’t bear it. I cannot lose Steffy not after Phoebe…” Taylor got even sadder thinking of her other daughter.

“I won’t let it happen baby. I won’t…” Ridge promised his wife.

“You better not. I won’t do it again… She has PTSD from Liam. That ugly spineless bastard did this to our baby. Phoebe’s father or not, I don’t care, Steffy’s chain needs to stop being pulled. Now he’s trying to sue her.”

“About that… I had my lawyer check it out, Liam withdrew his petition. He and his lawyer said they will just wait until the original court date. I don’t know what changed his mind, but he took it back.”

It made Taylor even more upset to hear this.

“I don’t give a damn Ridge… Does this take away our daughter’s concussion or the fact that her fucking brain was bleeding? Will the scar on the back her head miraculously disappear because Liam changed his mind? Him changing his mind on whims means nothing for our daughter. He can take his newfound attitude and shove it up his ass.”

Ridge had long been accustomed to knowing when his wife was truly peeved. She had no use for screaming. She would just calmly seethe and her face displayed her fury... it looked like she could erect lightning from her eyes when she was like this.

“Taylor, the baby…” Ridge was trying to calm his wife down with lightening up the mood. They were on the same page about Liam, he just wanted to give her an update.

“Oh please Ridge, she’s three months old all she wants are nipples and naps. I doubt she’ll have the urge to be a cursing machine.”

Ridge was not expecting his wife’s joke, he let out a loud laugh that woke up their daughter.

“Oh my God dad, I’m napping.” Steffy woke up to the sound of her father’s hearty laugh. It made her happy to hear the smile in his laugh but she wishes it was at any other time, she had just fallen asleep.

“Sorry sweetheart, it’s your mother’s fault but I promise I won’t let her influence me.” Ridge did what he always did… blame Taylor which only made his wife get exasperated with him. He loved that look on her. It reminded him of what she looked like when she orgasmed…

Steffy’s eyes looked from her father to her mother and she was highly disgusted.

“Dad, you are going to make me vomit, you are eye-sexing my mother… like eww…”

“I’m sorry sweetheart, she’s a beautiful woman.” Ridge practically leered at his wife. Phoebe in his lap be damned.

“Daddy, please you can do this later… Mama make him stop…” Steffy felt helpless because she was caught in a love sandwich between her parents.

Taylor blushed under her husband’s gaze. It still made her upset on a level because he could still do that without even trying.

“I’m sorry Steffy, it’s not my fault your father is a charming man…” Taylor loved teasing her daughter. It helped her feel better with the drama surrounding their lives.

“You two should be ashamed of yourselves, this aggressive flirting with my granddaughter and great granddaughter present. They are children for Pete’s sake.” Eric had slipped in the room with no one the wiser.

He made Ridge and Taylor feel reasonably chastised… he was only doing it in a mocking manner, but he could tell they were a little embarrassed.

“Thank you, grandad…” Steffy felt like she was finally saved. She couldn’t normally just walk away from her parents right now.

“Always…” Eric just gave her a wink.

Steffy fell asleep again pretty soon after Eric came. Ridge and Taylor gave him updates about her condition. Eric was happy to hear about her progress, he thought he would go mad when Bridget told him about what happened to Steffy. He just hoped that things would be looking up for his granddaughter… he loved her too much to want this for her.


	19. Chapter 19

Steffy was feeling much better. She had been discharged from the hospital about two weeks ago. She just wanted to get back to her life, she wanted to get back to some kind of normal. She wasn’t going to allow anyone to have any power over her. She was going to take it easy and just enjoy being a mother.

She liked the fact that she wasn’t alone, she was new to this and it was great to have her mother there. Bridget was amazing in the time she was there, but Stephanie knew that she had to get back to her own family. Anytime it got to be overwhelming, she loved that her mom was so ready and happy to help her. Steffy knew that she wanted to be a mother, but she knew that she needed the help especially after some of the health issues she had gone through.

She knew how incredibly lucky she was and she didn’t take it for granted. Even with a baby as good as Phoebe, being a new mother was a lot, it was challenging and sometimes foreign to her, but Steffy wouldn’t change anything about it. This is something that she had wanted for so long… this was something that she thought she was never going to have. When she had the miscarriage and the doctors telling her that it was highly unlikely, she would have a child to term, it felt like a stab in the heart. Sometimes when you have a choice taken away from you makes you want to yearn for it even more.

Taylor knew that Steffy was loving motherhood, but she knew that her daughter was getting a little bit stir crazy. Her daughter was one that loved adventure, she liked to have her fun. She didn’t want Steffy thinking that motherhood was all about just the baby and this would be her life going forward, she wanted her daughter to live as full of a life as possible. She wanted her to see that motherhood wasn't some beginning of an end.

She wanted Steffy to have a surprise, one that she would never see coming. It was why Taylor had called some of Steffy's closest friends. Steffy was finally out of the woods, she was given in all clear, the concussion was gone and her blood pressure stabilized. She believed her daughter deserved a night of just being with her friends, carefree and just having fun.

She saw her daughter playing with baby Phoebe and it brought a smile to her face. It wasn’t enough to throw off her plan. Her desire to surprise her daughter wasn't going to be interrupted. She just passed by her girls and went to the kitchen… she was waiting for any moment now.

The doorbell chimed; it took Steffy and Phoebe by surprise. They had been in their own world, playing together. Steffy had long stopped answering the door to her parents’ home. If she didn’t know who was coming, she would let them knock. But when her parents were home, they got the door themselves.

It was when she saw Taylor walking back from the kitchen and went straight for the door, it gave Steffy a sense of ease.

When Taylor opened the door, Steffy could hear some shrieks.

“I know you don’t think you’re gonna come out looking like that with us…” Lu was very serious.

Steffy was in absolute shock at who was in the doorway.

“You heard her, you better change. Your outfit better not have any spit up on it. We are hot girls… end of story, you need to start acting like that again.” Lily B said with her hair swaying in the wind to emphasize her point.

Steffy couldn’t believe that her best friends were there. They lived so far, so reunions were pretty hard to come by. Only thing that was missing was Phoebe… the four amigas.

This was so unexpected for Steffy. She felt like… She couldn’t stop laughing. She looked at Taylor and just shook her head. Her mom definitely had her hands all over this. She missed her friends so much, looking at them made her think about all the times they had together. She still remembered one of the best years of her life was with them. She remembered the boarding school that they went to, the trouble they got up to. She could still remember Lily B’s mom; she was the parent that was the closest to them at their boarding school in Paris. She was the one who used to chastise them when they got in trouble with the headmaster.

Steffy just looks at her friends and think about how much they lost. Every time she thinks about their losses, she also thinks about the strength of their friendship… They got each other through hard times, she felt like she was getting emotional thinking about her friends coming to her right now… in her time of need.

She didn’t like to complain because she knew that they all have their own lives to attend to. Steffy was the last one with a kid, she finally got to see how you could have no time or at least feel like you had no time to do the things that you used to do.

“You two really don't understand how amazing it is to see you right now. I missed you guys so much… I couldn’t wait for you guys to meet your goddaughter… this is our little Phoebe.”

Steffy knew how heavy this moment was, Lu had always been her number one friend… her best friend, and Lily be was Phoebe's. She knew that Lily seeing her was a way to have a connection to Phoebe, she felt the same way about Lily.

The prospect of having fun with her friends felt like an event she just couldn't miss. It started to make her feel like her old self. The one that used to chase adventure, the one who is always ready to try the newest alcoholic drink, to her the fruitier the better.

“She’s so beautiful Steffy, of course she has the curliest hair like you and Phoebe did.” Luisa said as she remembered just how curly her friends’ hair was. It was something that honestly bonded all of them. They all had the curliest hair in their school, she didn't know if that's why they gravitated towards each other, but it was definitely more than a coincidence.

“Yeah, I love her hair, look at those eyes, so beautiful like her mom.” Lily couldn’t think of a better name for Steffy to call her child. She loved the name, she loved everything about it. This was a way for Phoebe to keep living on…

Taylor just smiled; it was always such a beautiful thing for her to see these girls rally around each other. These were the people who got Steffy through the most challenging parts of her life. She also knew how great of a friend that Steffy was to them. She remembered how it was when Lily had lost her mother. How lost the young girl was... It was the first thing in both Steffy and Phoebe’s mind to go and be with Lily and her family. She remembered when Lily got sick, was the same thing. Unfortunately, Phoebe wasn’t there to console her best friend, but Steffy made sure that she was present and so did Luisa.

She knew that no matter what ever happened in their lives, these girls would drop everything for each other and just go it was why she knew that if she had called the girls and knew it wouldn't be anything to them to come. No questions asked… They would just be there for her daughter.

“You know I definitely don’t mind you all fawning over my granddaughter, but I didn’t think that’s what you were going to be doing the whole time you were here. I wanted you to show my girl how to have a good time again… And no that doesn’t mean I am condoning any illegal fun… just a couple of drinks… I only have one request of all of you, I had better not have to bail you out of jail.”

Taylor just picked up little Phoebe and started to go towards her office. They could all hear Taylor talking about the escapades they used to get up to at boarding school. Taylor called them just a bunch of bad girls, in they kept their mouth shut. If Taylor only knew half of it… Steffy and Phoebe used to beg Lily B’s mom to not rat them out, because they knew if Taylor and Ridge knew half of it, they would have had to leave.

“Well you heard the lady; she wants us to paint the town red… So who am I to disappoint my beloved mother?”

“That's definitely what we're going to do, but you better get a move on because we can’t do that with you and sweats now. It doesn’t matter if it’s aviator nation… I’m not going to be seen with you if you look like that… no offense Boo.” Luisa was so serious about not being seen like that.

She knew all about sweats, she had the dressiest sweats ever made… Having children made it so easy to get lost in the world of comfy clothes… who didn't love the feeling of pillows on your skin but tonight was all about leather jacket, tight pants, stiletto heels… It was all about looking sexy for themselves. She planned on documenting it all for the gram.

Lily couldn’t agree anymore, she did not want to think about her kids. Tonight wasn’t about being a mom or being a wife… she didn’t want to think about parent teacher conferences, PTA meetings or one of the soccer moms that she absolutely hates. She dealt with a lot being a mother, she hated just about all of the soccer moms, but Charlie wanted to play soccer so that’s what she had to do for her kid. She wanted to get drunk and have good times… She thought about her best friends, she remembered when they all celebrated their 18th birthdays. They had taken a trip to London. It was her, Phoebe, Colleen, Louisa, Steffy and Sierra. They had the time of their lives. They had all gone through some traumatic things, it sucked to see that it was only the three of them now. Sierra was a marine biologist and she lived pretty remotely most of the year. They were able to keep in contact with her, but it wasn't really the same. She was Lily’s friend from Walnut Grove. The four of them bonded that one year in boarding school when they were 14. When Lily’s mom decided to pull her out so they could go back home, all the other girls didn't see why they should stay. It wasn’t going to be the same if one of them wasn't there.

Lily and Lu just waited in the living room for their BFF to get ready. About 45 minutes later Steffy emerged looking like a completely different woman.

This was the friend that they were used to… The one that was ready to show up and show out.

She was wearing a leather jacket and a tight Navy blue dress with some open toed heels, it was like she was begging to be let into the club. They started taking some pregame pictures for Instagram. Steffy thought it was best for them to call in Uber, they didn’t really know where to go, so Steffy thought it was just best that they go to West Hollywood and see where the night takes them.

They had dinner at a sushi restaurant, that they absolutely fell in love with they almost didn’t wanna go to the club because they just wanted to keep eating all night. But Steffy was not about to have that, she came out tonight to have fun and get drunk. She had made sure that she pumped as much milk that would come out of her as possible just so she could get wrecked. They ended up at the club factory… They enjoyed the attention that they could elicit. Not even one of them was really entertaining their unknown admirers. But it was fun to be noticed again, Steffy was fresh off of a baby and a bad situation. Both Luisa and Lily were married but it didn't mean that they didn't enjoy the attention of someone who wasn’t their husband.

It felt good to be back… They knew that they were bad… They absolutely love the fact that they were a beautiful clique… And they loved that the world notice that they were.

They kept dancing until their age started to catch up with them, it felt good to be out, setting aside the responsibilities that came with their lives. The more songs that played the less tension they fell in their bodies. Steffy just kept thinking to herself that this night was such a needed event. it was weird to her how her mother knew what she needed, but she was starting to learn that you can’t fight a mom’s intuition and the DJ kept playing her jams… so she kept dancing the night away with her friends by her side.


	20. Chapter 20

Steffy kept thinking of the small time that she had with her friends. If anything it just gave her a stronger resolve… Even though Lu was in Mexico and Lily B was in Wisconsin, she felt revitalized from her friends. She was able to extract a strength, seeing them again reminded her of who she used to be. Someone who didn’t back down from a fight, she wasn’t going to let herself be bullied anymore. She didn’t run by the ethos of an eye for an eye made the world blind. No, she was going to Count of Monte Christo this shit, she was going to get her due.

She knew the best way to do this was to change her tactics, she knew that being combative could get her some places, but that’s not how she wanted to do this long term. She was going to have to do things that she didn’t like, like pretending to forgive Liam and asking him if he could possibly look into his heart and forgive her too. She made it gradual… more believable.

It didn’t matter if she didn’t believe that she knew that she could make Liam gullible… she could make him turn into mush. There was nothing of a bigger aphrodisiac to him then to have a woman seemingly grovel to him. He liked exercising his might… he usually employed emotionally manipulative tactics. She was going to give him what he wanted, she started going on these visits instead of having her mother do it.

She was going to tell him that she wanted to have a co-parenting situation that involved them being a united front. When she told him that she didn’t see a reason for them to have conduits anymore, the look on his face was priceless. Steffi felt like hook, line and sinker… It was almost as if Liam was trying to make a play for her again. He kept talking about all the good times that they had, she knew what he was doing. He was trying to lay the groundwork… she knew what he was thinking… He was going to try to bring up the good times they had to create some kind of emotional hold, trying to erase the bad and the hurt he put her through. It was what he always did, didn’t matter what woman he was with, it was the same thing with him.

He was so utterly predictable that Steffy almost laughed in his face, but she held firm. She wanted to make it seem as if she was such a proponent of this great co-parenting situation that she even invited Hope to some of these meetings. She still had it in the cliff house, there was no way that she was going to invite that into her home. She had moved out of her parents home when Kelly was six months and into her own, she didn’t want any space to have any lingering effects of Liam. She thought she would have to sage the place if she somehow gave into a moment of insanity if she were to invite Liam over.

Hope had been surprised when Liam told her that Steffy had invited her too. The last time she saw Steffy… All Hope could feel was guilt. Hope felt like this was a second chance at things. She was pregnant, having a good relationship with Steffy would be the ultimate goal. She wanted her daughter to have a relationship with her sister. She would take any kind of relationship that she could have with Steffy, even if it was just a platonic coparenting relationship.

Even though Steffy had returned to the office, it didn't mean that she saw her often. Getting to Steffy at FC was like trying to get into Fort Knox. It was nearly impossible, the only way for her to see Steffy would be by appointment… Which was probably one of the hardest things to do in the company… Just about everyone in the company vied for meeting time with Steffy. It was also no secret that Pam did her best to keep Hope away from Steffy.

Hope felt like she was a bit of a masochist, she will take any chance to see Steffy. The only times that she got to see Steffy would be at meetings for HFTF, it would always be in professional capacities and with so many people on the team would seek Steffy for advice that she hardly ever got a chance to speak to Steffy alone.

This olive branch Steffy was extending to them wasn’t going to be one that went ignored. Hope wanted to re-establish a good relationship with Steffy. Once she started to go to these visits, she started to wonder if it was a mistake… Steffy would wear things, they were not usually over revealing but they did emphasize some of Steffy’s best assets… Even though Hope had told Liam that she was less inclined to having sex when she got pregnant, it was a lie. If anything it made her even hornier than she would be normally. There was plenty of times where she was at the Cliff house and excused herself to use the bathroom numerous times. She did have to go to the bathroom being pregnant and all, but usually she left so she could finger herself.

She would see Steffy smirk or smile her confident smile… like she knew all of her secrets was enough to turn Hope on. She wondered was this how Liam felt too… she could see that he was practically smitten with Steffy at these visits. She didn’t know if Steffy was trying to say anything to her… They had a photoshoot for the baby and there was a big picture on the mantle. It was almost as if to say to Hope that she didn't belong there.

Liam loved it, he looked at it just about every time he went to the cliff house. Sometimes she found him just staring at it, for minutes it didn’t even look like he would blink. Hope tried to not put too much stock in it, she knew that Liam would always have feelings for Steffy… She knew exactly how that felt. She wondered if he was torturing himself as much as she was, were they both coming to these meetings as a way to be close to Steffy because they knew without them, they would have no place in her life?

Steffy thought that her plan was progressing nicely, she did it for such a long time… She wanted to sow discord between them slowly but she did not want any of it to have to do with her. She wasn’t going to go after Liam not yet at least. No she didn’t want to give Brooke or her minions any kind of fodder or ammunition. She just minded her business and kept on with these scheduled visits. Liam had even broached the subject of changing the terms of their custody and Steffy had to say it would be a hard no. She didn’t want Liam to have anything more than what was given. She thought the meetings themselves were actually too generous.

He still found ways to try and manipulate her, but what he didn’t know was that she was already on to his game… she knew every kind of play he was doing and she counter played. He was playing checkers and she was playing chess.

She played the confidant, she acted as if they were friends… he actually said that she was his best friend. She thought that was rich because what best friends do you know sends you to the hospital. Relish in your tears… But the tables had turned, it was going to be Steffy who came out on top. That’s why when Liam started to come to these visits looking more erratic, she saw an opening.

He kept going about saying that Hope must be cheating on him. Steffy played at being concerned over his demeanor and his feelings, but she was really just laughing inside… He was just so insecure. Liam just kept talking about how she would stay late for work, she supposedly had so many commitments, He told Steffy, that it was like Hope couldn’t wait to go back to work after having Beth.

He felt that Hope was so consumed with her work that she was leaving no time for him. When Steffy heard him she just thought to herself he was so incredibly selfish, it was as if he were a child himself. Any kind of attention that he wasn’t getting only led him to rash conclusions.

He was absolutely convinced that Hope was cheating on him, he told Steffy that he heard some man in the background when he was on the phone with Hope… Steffy wanted to laugh, the most likely culprit would have been Nathan. He was the only man on the HFTF team and he had no interest in Hope… Or any woman for that matter.

Even though Steffy knew that Nathan was absolutely no threat to Liam, she played as if he was, she acted like she had no clue who it could be. All she said was Hope had been spending a lot of hours at work, but she did add that they had a big campaign coming up and everyone was doing extra hours.

It wasn’t enough to acquiesce Liam, it was in Steffy’s goal even though she tried to make it seem as if she was really caring about Liam’s feelings. Liam started to justify to himself, Hope was using the cover of work to cheat on him. He went on to say that he hadn’t had sex with Hope since she got pregnant. That was actually news to Steffy which made her smirk on the inside. She knew that Hope was using these visits to see her. She knew every time the Hope was escaped to the bathroom, Hope was probably massaging her pussy thinking of her. Steffy had worn the clothes she had on purpose. She knew how to entice Hope, she knew everything that Hope liked. She also knew that it tempted Liam too. It was like two birds with one stone.

Liam’s voice had roused Steffy back from her thoughts, he started talking about all of their good times… He started talking about he made a mistake. That they could have been in this house raising Kelly. He started to become apologetic about throwing them away, he told Steffy that it was a mistake to leave her… Steffy thought he was just so transparent, but an idea came to her head.

This was going to be her revenge; she was going to pulverize Liam into the ground… He was waxing poetic about his supposed love for her. She was going to use that love to her advantage. Liam had made his move, she thought it was comical how he tried to justify and rationalize this. He was laying the groundwork for wanting her back, at least to have sex with her with justifying why he was able to do so. Steffy had sex with him, it was ends to a means.

Steffy knew exactly how to shatter Liam, after their rendezvous. She used the visits to keep talking about their tryst. She was going to start playing on his guilt complex, even if he felt justified, she was going to hammer him about the cheating.

So when they started meeting, Liam became a little fretful, he found out that Hope wasn’t cheating on him. It was pretty obvious because the candidate was gay. Liam had met Nathan when he ran into Hope at a restaurant, during lunch service. When Liam had seen Nathan and introduced himself, he was going to start to say something, but when Nathan made a comment about his husband loved the place because they had vegan options, Liam’s face fell.

He could match the voice on the phone to the man that was in front of him. He started to feel foolish that he justified Hope possibly cheating on him as a reason for him to cheat with Steffy. He started to feel as if he was in the hot seat every time Steffy talked about it. The more she talked about it the more guilty he felt because he knew that he no longer had the moral high ground.

Steffy could see that her words started to weigh on Liam, it was what she was counting on. She wanted him to manufacture his own destruction, he had wanted to keep it a secret, so Steffy had to pull out the big guns. She told Liam that she was pregnant… what Liam didn’t know was Steffy had already been pregnant.

She had decided that she wanted to give Kelly a younger sibling… So she went to see her options and got pregnant by artificial insemination. It was a guarantee that she was pregnant. And Steffy had been single for so long, she made the comment of not being able to date because of her career and Kelly that Liam was the only option in his mind.

He didn’t even ask if it was his… It was then that Liam knew that he was going to have to fess up to Hope, Steffy was pregnant and that was an unavoidable fact. Steffy had so much fun witnessing the horror on Liam’s face. It felt so good even if it took her almost two years to get her revenge. She was patient and she held strong…

For the people who say that revenge can only taste sweet for just a second, she thought that was BS… If revenge had only tasted sweet for a second, then they obviously weren’t doing it right. Because Steffy had felt glorious the whole time that Liam was stewing. She felt even more amazing when she told Hope to fuck off. She felt like she was flying high, it was better than that time she accidentally took ecstasy.


	21. Chapter 21

Liam felt like his whole world was crumbling. He thought being honest would be the best option. He had no choice but to tell Hope because Steffy was pregnant. There was a part of him that had been really nervous to tell Hope, but there was another part of him that had Hope that he would be back with Steffy. He was having another child with her and it only cemented his bond to her. It was hard not to contemplate a future with her. Every time he was able to visit the cliff house and see Steffy and Kelly there made his heart feel a little fuller.

The bond he had with Steffy was forever, they were best friends. He knew that he would always love her no matter what happened between them. Being able to spend time with her and their child, it made him feel like they missed out on something special. He blew them up… he had moved on with Hope after Steffy said she was done with him. He thought that Steffy was going to try harder to fight for him when she told him that she rescinded the petition for divorce. It hurt him to see her throw them away when she re-filed. He moved on with Hope, getting Hope pregnant hadn’t been the first thought on his mind. He was surprised to hear it, she told him that she was on birth control.

It made him bitter, Hope was somehow pregnant even though she told him that she was on birth control. His life was Steffy went up in flames. When Steffy made herself distant from him, it made him see red… he hated not having control. The whole situation, having a woman have your baby while she is also divorcing you… It was something that he hadn’t envisioned. When hope got pregnant, it was like a second chance… He married her and they had their own child. It was not ideal for him to only have visitation with his child. He hated the fact that Steffy unilaterally called their daughter Phoebe, in his mind he felt that her name should have been Kelly. So that’s what he always called her.

He hated that people could always see only their pain, yeah he knew that Steffy lost her sister but he lost his mother… that’s why he called his eldest daughter Kelly. Steffy had taken him to court and he somehow only got visitation… He thought for sure that he would get joint custody. When the judge found out about the circumstances with Steffy and labor, it was used against him and he was smacked with taking anger management classes. They said it showed that his judgment was clouded, and their child was a newborn. The judge ended up saying that it was better for the child to be under one roof as such in young age here he thought it was a crock of bull… he thought he was being punished. It wasn’t his fault that Steffy went into early labor.

But it really didn’t matter then because he and Steffy had gotten to a better place, a place where he could speak to her freely again. When he started to speak to her candidly during these visits, it was so easy for him to reminisce about their relationship. It was so easy to be friends with her, she was a great listener, always gave him good advice.

It was easy to fall back again, he thought why not… if Hope was going to be cheating on him then he didn’t need to hold back anymore. He felt that night was stuff he was special; it was so easy to be one with each other again.

He had not been expecting Steffy to tell him that she was pregnant. Even though he thought that they had a special night, he was ready to see where it led them, he found out that Hope wasn’t cheating on him. He did this monumental thing on the premise that his wife had stepped out on their marriage. Not only had he stepped out on his marriage, but there was also going to be evidence of that.

When he told Hope, he didn’t know what he was thinking data he didn't know what conclusion was gonna come of it, but he knew that he had to do it because it was going to become evident, the secret would come out. Steffy’s pregnancy was like a ticking time bomb… he knew that she was not going to pretend that it was anyone else and somewhere deep inside of him he didn't want to either.

When Hope came home and said she wanted to divorce, it made him speechless. It had been some days since he told her, she told him that she was going to think about it and try to come to some kind of understanding. He didn’t think that she would jump to a divorce so soon. They didn’t talk about it… he even broached the subject of them going into couples counseling. It was something that she seemed receptive to at the time. He didn’t know what happened…

He knew that Hope was going to speak to Steffy, what happened in that meeting that could make home turn and do a 180?

“Did I hear you correctly? Did you just say that you wanted a divorce?”

Liam was trying to come to understand, he was still in disbelief because things were just so confusing right now.

Hope looked at him with a resigned look on her face. She didn’t feel anger and she didn’t feel upset… she felt indifferent. She doesn’t love Liam; she didn’t have to pretend to care anymore. She took the drive from FC to really think about things. It hurt so badly in the moment to be fired by Steffy, especially after what happened in the office period to feel such elation and then such rejection… It was like having a roaring bonfire put out with salt water.

Even though one part of her world seemed to be tearing by the seams, another felt like a new beginning. She could divorce Liam… she didn’t want to think about having a third marriage that ended up in divorce, but at this point she realized that she didn't care, she was going to have freedom… No one can take that away from her, she wasn’t going to let Liam try and get in her head and convince her that this was some kind of mistake. The biggest mistake was walking away. It led her into a corner that she thought she wasn't going to be able to come back from. It wasn't completely without anything good, she was able to have Beth her miracle child. That’s something that she would always be thankful for in this whole scheme of hurt and messiness.

She let herself down a desperate game of vengeance and she lost, the only consolation prize was she got to become a mother. She didn’t have to worry about bringing bad publicity to the campaign anymore because she was fired from FC. Any kind of scandal or tabloid news, she didn’t have to worry about it being detrimental to the new campaign or the rollout. She could make a clean break for it and not feel pressured to have to stay in misery any longer. She did not have to pretend to love a man that she hates.

She didn’t have to pretend to let herself be manipulated by some emotionally stunted piece of shit, she didn't have to share her life with him anymore and it made her feel so good inside. She didn’t have to pretend to want to live in the cabin anymore or pretend to give a crap about her relationship with her mother. She could leave it all. The toxicity in her life was going to be no more because she didn’t need to have the façade, she didn’t need to feel guilty. Even though her heart was broken comments, she couldn't really blame Steffy for breaking her heart, she broke her own heart…

But Steffy also set her free, at least on a professional front, getting fired was not something that she wanted for herself, but she needed to look at the bright side of things. Find the positive in all of the negative that was surrounding her life right now.

“You heard me Liam, I’m not going to stand around playing your fool. You cannot expect me to deal with the fact that you are having another child with stuffy. You cheated on me and you think that I’m supposed to be understanding of that. You ask for too much coming you are having another baby with someone else… Your ex wife at that who you already share a child with. I’m not doing it…”

“Hope I know that we can get back to where we were, I know that it’s going to take a lot of forgiving but I don’t wanna give up on our marriage, on our family… We need to think about our child and be a united front”

“You are really asking me to forgive you and stand by while you have another child with your ex wife, who was my boss because I just got fired today. Liam yes, we have a child together, but I am not going to let you use my daughter to try and trap me into this marriage, it was so easy for you to cheat on me. I was working… doing my job trying to be a career woman and you were insecure, the first thing you did was run to your ex wife and complain about me. To what end, you are trying to justify this, you screamed at me, you talk to me as if I was the gum underneath your shoe and not even your wife when you suspected that I cheated on you. It was vile, it was disgusting… You did not respect our marriage. You thought to yourself, oh my God if she’s cheating on me, then it's going to be great because I can just do the same to her and somehow be justified in doing it. But that’s the difference between me and you Liam. It’s a pattern with you. You did it with Steffy, you did it with me… I am not going to stay in this toxic relationship and excuse the things that you do. All you do is manipulate and hurt. You need to leave. I don’t wanna see you, your face makes me sick, you make me sick. The fact that you could somehow try to get me to forgive you and try in this marriage while you have another child with your ex wife is actually comical. I almost actually gave it a thought because I said to myself, I can’t have anything ruin my professional life. But getting fired is my key to this freedom. I don’t have any qualms about getting the divorce from you and that is going to be final. Don’t bother wasting your breath because I don’t want this. I’m tired of pretending, I’m tired of lying to myself… I am not doing this for my daughter. I’m not going to pretend in a marriage, I’m not going to do this for Beth. I don’t want to stay in a dysfunctional relationship with you and have her develop some kind of complex.”

Liam was shocked at how much Hope had to say. He wasn’t expecting her to be so concrete with her answers. He wanted a chance to actually save this, but what ran through his mind was as much as it hurt to hear the words divorce, he thought to himself this could be the time with Steffy.

He was having another child and it was going to be a deeper bond between him and the mother of his eldest child. He loved her, he was still in love with her and he probably always was. He was going to give Hope what she wanted, he was going to not contest her petition for divorce.

He thought to himself it might take six months, but this time with Steffy was going to be the last time. They were going to get married and raised their daughters together. He knew that she would be a wonderful stepmother to Beth, maybe this was how everything was supposed to be in the first place. He was going to seize the opportunity.

He was going to fight for the life he should have had in the first place. He was going to tell Steffy how he felt and tell her that this was a sign, they were having a second child and nothing was going to be able to tear them apart now. They were soulmates and he wasn't going to let himself deny that possibility anymore.


	22. Chapter 22

Steffy was biding her time, as time went on… she only grew more confident in her plan. It wasn’t over yet. She found out about Hope filing for divorce. It did feel good, but filing was only one part. She wanted the ink to dry and the judge to make their ruling. She wanted Liam to have his divorce. She was settling for nothing less.

After that day when she revealed that she was pregnant to him, she made herself completely unavailable. Liam was completely surprised when he showed up to a visit expecting Steffy only to find her mother there. He thought to himself maybe it was just a one off, he knew that it must have been busy at FC. But the next time it was Taylor again, and the next time after that. He had tried getting in contact with Steffy, he asked her what was going on…

She told him that she had a lot on her plate, and she would be completely unavailable for visits. Steffy was busy, she had lots to do for work, but she also didn’t really care to see Liam anymore. Her plan was successful, she got everything she wanted… Liam was blowing up her phone wondering when he could see her.

She knew is only a matter of time before he wanted to have another chance with her. He was very predictable, she knew the same day that Hope had filed that he was going to try and make his move. He always needed a woman to be waiting in the wings, she knew him like the back of her hand. Like clockwork, she knew that he would use this excuse to try and manipulate her, he was going to try and talk about their good times. He was going to ask her for another chance.

She knew his game; it was so predictable it almost made her feel bad for him. But when she looked deep inside, she could not even feel an ounce of remorse for him. She was gonna give him everything he deserved… He was always trying to play women against each other, but this time he was going to be the one who got played.

Steffy waited patiently, she waited the whole six months. She knew that the divorce would have been final by now. Liam was practically begging her for a visit. He wanted her to be at the visit and no one else. Suddenly her schedule cleared up… She went with her mother to the visit. She knew that Liam wasn’t going to be expecting her to bring Taylor, that’s what made it extra special.

Taylor hadn’t really been supportive about the plan, she just felt that Steffy should just focus on work and her children. Steffy said that she was, but this was going to be a bonus. She couldn’t help the fact that Liam gave her an opportunity to pulverize him. She was going to seize on the opportunity of his stupidity and recklessness. Taylor didn’t know much about the plan other than the fact that Steffy had lied and told Liam that he was the father of her baby.

Taylor felt that it was none of her business, she didn’t have any obligation to tell Liam anything… especially about her daughter. She didn’t even know much about the plan until after the fact. Steffy kept all of this so close to the vest. Taylor only surmised that her best friends probably knew. And she knew that they would definitely have been supporting the plan, they hate Liam just as much as Steffy does, and they’ve been hating him as long as Steffy’s parents have.

Liam was so happy that Steffy finally agreed to come to a visit. He was trying not to lose out on hope of them having a reconciliation. He was going to put his heart on the line and let her know that there were no obstacles in front of them. They could get married and have the life that they were always supposed to have. It was a sign that they should have never sold the cliff house, they were meant to live here. They found their way back to each other and he wasn’t going to let that go now.

Even though getting divorce was never a fun process, he had to look at the silver lining, he was going to get his wife back.

Liam, I got into the cliff house first, he waited for Steffy. When she came through the doors with her mother, Liam had a confused face. He was wondering why the hell was Taylor there… He saw that Kelly wasn’t.

The last time that he saw Steffy her belly was still flat, but now she was heavily pregnant. Pregnant with his child and it made him beam with pride. Then he thought about it of course stuff he wasn’t going to bring Kelly on this visit, they were gonna speak about their future.

“Hey Steffy, hi Taylor… I wasn’t expecting you. Steffy would you like me to get you anything to drink or eat…”

Steffy knew that Liam had taken residence at the cliff house, he had been living there since he will serve with divorce papers.

“No Liam, I’m not hungry or thirsty but thank you for being so thoughtful to ask.” Steffy’s curt manner really surprised Liam.

“Hey Steffy I was hoping that we could talk in private, Taylor do you mind giving us the room…” Liam really did want to speak to Steffy alone, he knew if her mother had stayed in the room then Taylor was probably going to have some negative things to say.

“I don’t see why my mother should have to leave Liam, is this somehow important?”

“Well yeah, it’s about our future together, we’re having another child and I wanted to see what kind of future we could have as a family. Steffy this is our chance to have everything that we had discussed before, we wanted to have a family and raise our children together as a unit. I love you… I never stopped. That night we had was incredibly special for me and I want to get back together. There is nothing stopping me now because my divorce is final. Don’t you think that this is a sign?”

“Liam the only signs that I care to investigate are in financial reports… I don’t make life altering decisions on quote unquote signs. That’s a pretty reckless way to live don’t you think?”

“What I mean Steffy is that my divorce is final, it clears a hurdle, there's nothing stopping us from getting back together. My marriage is done… we’re having another baby.”

“Well I’m having a baby.” Steffy was starting to enjoy the bombs that were about to drop.

“Well yes Steffy, I know that it’s really just stating the obvious. You’re having my child, this is why I think we shouldn't be giving up on us… We’ve been given an opportunity to come together again.”

“Liam, I never told you that I was having your baby, I told you that I was pregnant.”

It was as if Liam started to slowly piece together what Stephanie was saying. It made Taylor laugh as she saw his face morphing into understanding.

“No… No… No… You’re having my child, you told me that you were pregnant and that I had to tell Hope because you were going to start showing soon.”

“I did tell you that you should tell Hope about that night, and I did tell you that I was pregnant. But you came to your own conclusions didn’t you Liam… You connected the dots that you wanted to connect.” Steffy so much joy from the knowledge that Liam was starting to gather. The uptake was slow, but she knew that it would be. She could savor this like they were salt and vinegar kettle chips.

“So you’re trying to tell me that I threw away my marriage, for a child that’s not even mine possibly.” Liam was starting to get upset because now Steffy was telling him that he may not even be the father of this child comment she was telling this to him now.

“Only there's no possibility, when I had sex with you, I was already pregnant.”

Liam was irate, Steffy had been pregnant when they had their reunion… He just got his divorce finalized… He wasn’t even with Hope anymore.

“You’re telling me that this child was never mine, you're only telling me this now. You saw me throw away my marriage for a child that's not even mine…” Liam said as he started to pace.

“No Liam I’m pretty sure you threw away your marriage when you thought that Hope was cheating on you and you felt justified and cheated on her.”

“I cheated on her with you…”

“And that's your mistake… not mine.”

Liam felt his anger really starting to build, why would Steffy do such a thing... It was like she had no problem trying to blow up his world… again.

“Was this your way of getting some kind of sick and twisted edge on me. Did you think that this was funny?”

Liam wondered was this the reason that he brought Taylor, so they could have a laugh at his expense.

“No I don’t think that this is funny Liam, I didn’t do this to be funny. I did this to get my justice, the fact that you thought I would actually be with you shows just how pathetic you are. You had absolutely no problem in wanting me to grovel and beg you. You wanted to destroy my self confidence and my self-worth. You wanted to feel superior to me, just so you could think about being with me. You always pretend that you have this moral high ground about everything, towards every single person in your life. The funny thing of it all is Liam you have absolutely no morals, not when it counts. You believe that you are a better person than you actually are. You cheat on your spouses, it’s your consistency no matter who you are with sooner or later you will find a way to destroy the relationship and you will try to pin it on anyone but yourself.”

“Is this some sick little game to you, pouring my heart to you and this is how you’re treating me, I thought we got passed all of that.”

“You’re right Liam I have gotten past that, I had gotten so passed over it that I was able to cultivate a plan… you fell right into it like I knew you would, I just didn’t expect how soon it was going to be. I’ve just been waiting for you; well I really been waiting for the state of California. your divorce is final, just like with you being me again. Liam, I wanted you to be alone, no woman should ever have to endure the likes of you.”

Steffy was so happy to see Liam’s confusion and anger, it fueled her like nothing else would. She finally got her satisfaction.

“Now you can finally experience just a sample of the shit you put me through you slimy turd. Have a nice life being lonely, you smarmy fuck. Also wanted to let you know, you couldn't even make me come when we had sex.” Steffy made her exit from the cliff house.

Taylor was a little slower, she just watched Liam, it was one of the few times that she was amused misery. She made her way to the car and got back in the driver’s seat and whisked Steffy away from this chapter in her life.


	23. Chapter 23

To say Liam was upset was an understatement, there was no right words to put how he felt in the moment. He felt like he had been hoodwinked. Steffy had been planning this for months on end. She actually waited for the ink to dry on his divorce to tell him that this child wasn’t his. He was fuming, he actually didn't know how he was going to deal with this. He thought that he was going to be making a life with Steffy, she was hell bent on sticking it to him.

He had never been in this kind of position before, he felt so embarrassed and downright hurt. He didn’t understand how Steffy could be so cruel to him, how she could just belittle his feelings. She had no qualms about destroying his marriage and breaking his heart. He threw away his wife for her. All she did was just laugh at him.

He knew that this wasn’t sustainable now, he needed to regroup, the last thing that he wanted to do was go back to bill and ask him for anything. But he realized that he was going to need a job. He was going to need something to distract himself from all of the turmoil that’s going on in his life.

It had been a couple of days and he didn’t bother to even text Wyatt. He knew that his brother was a little concerned for him. He just left his brother on read.

When he finally reached out to Wyatt, he wondered how he was going to maneuver asking Bill for a job. He had so much pride that he couldn’t see how he could in any way bend to Bill’s will. Wyatt told him that if he was serious then he was just going to have to suck it up and kiss the ring. Everyone knew that if you were gonna work for Bill Spencer then you are going to have to deal with the Bill Spencer way.

Liam didn’t need to be versed how to deal with Bill Spencer, he knew exactly who his father was. His father was a snake, sometimes he wondered how the apple could falls so far from the tree. He and Wyatt were nothing like bill… Maybe it was why they could barely get along with him on most days.

It had been a couple of weeks since he had seen Steffy. He still replayed the whole situation in his head sometimes. He thought to himself maybe she was just mad, he was trying to catalog every feeling and every expression that she had on her face. He thought to himself maybe that she got this revenge out of her system, maybe they could pick up and try to salvage what they had.

He was in the building; he had an appointment with his father. As he was going to bill’s office, he saw Justin with a young woman.

“Hey Justin, long time no see…”

“Hey Liam, you here to see your father?”

“Yeah, I’m surprised you don’t know, I’m thinking of coming back to the company. Hey sorry bout my rudeness, I’m Liam… are you new to the company?” Liam had tried to be polite to the woman. He realized that he could have gone the whole conversation without saying a word to her. He wanted to mind his manners.

“No, as if I would ever work for Bill Spencer…” The woman that was with Justin, rolled her eyes and scoffed at the idea of her ever working for Spencer publications.

“No… This is my niece; she just happens to be visiting on business. Lily this is Liam, he is Bill’s eldest son. That we know of… Of course there could always be more.” Justin knew that Bill used to get around town…and honestly the whole country.

“I wish it could be a pleasure, but I wasn’t raised to lie.” Lily wasn’t going to bother being polite. She didn’t like Liam and she wasn’t going to pretend; she didn’t care if this was Justin’s job. She knew that he was an executive here and nothing was going to happen to him. “Uncle Justin can we go? I’m tired of being here.” Lily just seeing Liam’s face, made her want to punch it.

“Yeah, that's fine, I think Devon said that he was close. I gotta treat my family too a good lunch, since you guys never visit. Liam I’ll be seeing you… Well maybe.” Justin had been having the same conversation with his family for such a long time. He knew that it was just as much his fault. He hated having to deal with all of the scandals that Bill and his children could muster. He had so many countless vacations cancelled do too one of them doing something so stupid.

Liam didn’t know if that woman’s bad attitude came from the fact that he was Bill Spencer’s kid or if he somehow offended her in the two seconds of knowing her. He couldn’t bother to think about that right now because he was going to have to deal with the minefield that came with asking for a job from Bill Spencer.

When he got to Bill’s office, he waited for Bill's assistant to let him go in.

When he stepped foot in the office, he saw that his father had the same smile he gave the whole world.

“Fancy seeing you here Liam…”

“Hey dad… How you been?”

“I’ve been rather well, can’t complain… How’s it been in your world?”

“My personal life has imploded so I was seeing if I could get my job back to somehow distract me from the clusterfuck that is my life.”

Even though Bill and Liam had been on the outs, it wasn’t as if Bill had no heart for his children, even if he thought that they were weak they were still his children.

“What’s going on with you?”

“It seems as if Steffy was planning a revenge attack on me for I don’t know maybe since the day she filed for divorce…”

“What? What could Steffy possibly have done?”

“I mistakenly thought Hope was cheating on me and I got so mad at the notion of her stepping out on our marriage that I ended up telling Steffy everything and reminiscing about what could have been our life together had she not been with you…” Liam didn’t mean to have the edge in his voice when he talked about Bill and Steffy. But it was something that was somewhat automatic for him.

Bill had a face of guilt; it was only for a nanosecond then he hid it but he felt bad. He felt like his actions set a whole chain of events. He thought it was going to end up in his favor, but he didn’t expect it to somehow devolve into this.

“Okay, so you thought that that worthless wench was cheating on you, so what does that have to do with anything? I think you’re better off, you’re divorced from her and you can move on with your life.” Bill had been telling Liam for years that Hope was not right for him.

“How do you come up with such alliterative insults? Anyways that’s not the point. The thing about it was hope was not cheating on me. She just happened to have a busy campaign when she was at FC and it just meant long nights, I thought she was cheating on me because of some guy in the background when she was on the phone. Found out that said man has a husband. I felt foolish for thinking what I thought but it wasn’t before I slept with stuffy that I found that out.”

“You slept with Steffy… Wow Liam you really did not wait.”

“I really don’t need that judgment that I already know that I messed up. I didn't really contest my divorce with Hope because I thought that was Steffy being pregnant--"

“Excuse me did you just say that Steffy is pregnant?”

“Yeah, Steffy is pregnant, the only thing about it was Steffy told me that she was pregnant and I told Hope that we slept together. When I told Hope that Steffy was pregnant, she wanted a divorce.”

“You’re telling me that Steffy is pregnant right now, how does no one know this?”

“Well you know Steffy runs a tight ship there, no one’s going to try and rat her out to a tabloid… No but the best part of it all is that I’m thinking that we can start over with our life and raise our family together but that's not going to happen.”

“Why is that, if Steffy is pregnant then maybe she'll give you another chance…” It pained Bill to say that. He didn’t think that Liam was worth shining Steffy’s shoes.

“Well Steffy always had the power to make people think things. She made me think that I was the father of her child. She strongly made me infer that I was. She pulled the rug from under me when she told me that she had already been pregnant when we slept together. She wanted to destroy my marriage as payback. She had no intention of being with me and she made sure that she got the last laugh.”

“Well color me impressed, she sure is like her namesake. You do not mess with Stephanie Forrester and think you won’t get what’s coming to you…” Bill felt incredibly proud at the fact that Steffy had such a long and tedious plan that she executed. His grandchild was almost two years old, she must have just been waiting for Liam to slip up. The fact that she knew that he would made Bill feel even more proud.

“You’re telling me that you’re proud of the fact that Steffy was so horrible to me. I’m your son.”

“And… does that make what you did anything less than hurtful to her. You treated her like shit, you had been doing it for months even before she got pregnant. You took her for granted, you cheated on her and yeah the paternity thing wasn't ideal, but Liam you were always a horrible husband to her. You’ve been married twice and divorced twice to her. You never really knew how to appreciate her, you just thought to yourself she wasn't going to leave… You could do whatever you liked and do it with whomever you wanted and she would somehow still be waiting in the wings for you. The only thing that happened was she decided that she didn't want to do that anymore. Can you blame her? You had her fighting for your affections for goodness gracious probably for as long as Will has been alive. Liam whatever she did to you pales in comparison with all of the bull that you've done to her. You should count yourself lucky because Steffy could have given you way more hell than just this. How are you gonna blame her for the destruction of your marriage when you were the one that used any excuse to cheat? I don’t even like Hope, but what did you expect her to do when you told her that you cheated on her. Steffy got you to fess up, you’re supposed to be the one that all about trust and fidelity and this goody two shoes crap, people hold you to that and you fail miserably. We’re more like than you will ever give credit for.”

Liam didn’t expect his father to stick up for Hope or Steffy in this whole situation.

“So you’re saying that it was right for Steffy to do this to me?”

“If this was what Steffy chose, you should count yourself lucky… Liam she could have gone a whole other route for this, one that would actually really be painful for you. So you got a divorce, it was going to happen anyways. You and Hope are ultimately incompatible… I’m not just saying that because I don’t like her, I’m saying this because of your track record. If you didn’t cheat on her with Steffy it was going to be someone else. Liam none of your marriages ever last more than a year. That’s a fact… you can’t escape the facts. There’s always something that you do that implodes your relationships.”

Liam knew that his love life was always complicated, it has been ever since he moved to Los Angeles… He never really thought about the length of his marriages or Steffy and Hope in that manner.

He felt so vulnerable and exposed in front of his father and that was probably the worst feeling to have in front of Bill Spencer. It didn’t matter if that was his father or not, Bill was known to be able to exploit people’s weakness for his game.

“Well I didn’t come here to discuss my relationship statuses with either of my ex-wives, I came here for a job.”

“Well if you need a job then you can do what every other person does and go to the website and apply. Otherwise I don’t understand why you’re in my office.”

“Are you kidding dad? Are you really going to make me do an application like I’m some regular Joe schmo…”

“Liam you’re always about fairness... hmm and doing things the right way, that would be doing the things the right way. Unless you’re willing to admit that you do like being a Spencer and what that entails. You will just have to admit it to yourself and to me if you actually want to work here again.”

Bill wasn’t trying to make it difficult for anyone, but he was not going to deal with this naivete and idealism. That was not something that he wanted in his business, he wanted people who could admit what was there.

Liam told Bill what he wanted to hear, he gave a conviction that came from a truthful place in his heart. Even if he didn’t want to admit that his last name brought him advantages that other people didn't have. Bill told him that he could have his job back… Bill did tell him that it would not be in Liam’s best interest to try and retaliate towards Steffy. He told Liam that he was out of his depth, if he tried to hit hard as Steffy, he was going to see that it was gonna be a boomerang. It was a mistake to steer Liam towards Steffy, he could admit that now, Steffy was too strong to have Liam as her equal, whether it was as a partner or an adversary.

Liam didn’t really pay any mind towards Bill. He thought to himself that he needed to speak to Hope and try to repair that relationship.


	24. Chapter 24

When Hope had been at FC, she was first upset when Steffy told her about her diminished role. She was only going to be a spokesmodel for the brand, she thought to herself that she was being sidelined. She was surprised that she was doing more work than she ever had. When Steffy had told her that she was going to be modeling for other brands too, Hope jumped at the chance. She wanted to prove to herself and Steffy that she could handle it.

She was traveling all over the country to help with the rollouts of new collections at department stores and Forrester owned boutiques. She felt so accomplished with herself. One of the added bonuses that came with modeling for more brands… was modeling the lingerie line. The more photoshoots Hope did, the more she ended up liking them. One big reason for it was Steffy somehow stumbled in every photoshoot. It became a cat and mouse game with them. When all of the models and assistants would disappear, it would always just be them left in the studio.

The ensuing sex Hope had was frantic and desperate, Steffy knew how to play with her, what could make her weep for more. Hope kept waiting for the next photoshoot. Everything changed when she got pregnant. Steffy told her whatever they were doing… had to stop. They were fucking around but they weren’t together anymore. With Hope getting pregnant by Liam and their engagement, Steffy wanted no part in any of that. It disappointed Hope because she wanted Steffy anyway she could have her.

The freed-up time that Hope had led her to exploring options that FC offered. She knew about their continuing education program, but she never paid it any mind the first time she had been employed by the company. She had heard some people on the HFTF team talking about some fun courses they were taking, it made Hope think. Some of the people on the team had MBAs and high-powered marketing degrees and they were still taking courses, so she thought to herself why not.

She had attended an interior decorating seminar and fell in love with it. Even though it was similar to clothing with striking patterns and cohesive collections, it was completely different than anything she had done before. It was like something awoke in her. It was only a seminar, but Hope wanted more. She went to HR to see what her options for school were and she was pleasantly surprised to find out that the company subsidized education.

She had started to take some courses at La City College. Her professors had told her that this was something that she had a knack for. She knew that FC had a home decor business. She thought herself if she could graduate with a degree, maybe she could move into that part of the company. Her pregnancy allowed her to have more free time for herself so she could focus on school. The downside of not having the photo shoots was not being around Steffy. The upside to it was she was furthering her education and it kept her out of the house and away from Liam.

She had felt like she was finally getting somewhere, sometimes she felt stuck like she couldn't move, she hated the feeling of being paralyzed. She had gotten about two semesters done by the time she had Kelly and she had passed all of her classes the straight A's. She thought to herself if she could keep doing this then she could get her degree in no time. She had asked HR to shadow the interior decorating team. She felt like she found people who understood her in a way that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Most of the time, she was only with Liam and the things that she thought connected him to her felt so artificial now. It felt like she didn’t know who she was when she was younger because she didn’t understand how she ever found him so interesting.

When Hope gave her ideas about patterns that she thought would be a good hit for one of the new collections, the head of the department said that it was a great idea. They actually used the pattern that she told them about. It had reached Steffy, the one thing she had not ever expected was Steffy to give her a compliment. Anytime that she was with Steffy, they didn’t do much talking. It was something that made her feel so warm inside to actually get a compliment from Steffy. Especially when she had worked so hard to be good in that area.

It was something that she craved, she knew if she could get this degree and be on the team, it would be something like a game changer for her. She felt like she would be able to contribute more to her professional development. In a way she thought that she would be working closer with Steffy, if she could work her way through the ranks and become a senior person on the team eventually, she would be in meetings with the heads of departments and the executive board. She would feel like the professional that she always used to pretend to be. She would finally get the respect of a lot of career people at FC, she wouldn’t be the little girl trying to play a big kid’s game.

The difference between then and now would be that she would know her stuff, she would come prepared and ready to be successful, show her education and her knowledge. When someone asked her a question, she would have an answer for it. She wouldn’t feel embarrassed anymore. When she had gotten fired, she thought to herself that maybe that this was it. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be, maybe she was playing pretend, it was finally catching up to her. But then she remembered the fire in Steffy’s eyes. It was a challenge, a challenge to be better. She remembers what it was like to have the respect of someone so senior in the company. She liked it and she didn't want to turn back; she didn’t want to revert to herself… not the weak person who needed to be placated and have everyone do everything for her.

She stuck with her courses, she kept getting her straight A's and she kept staying on the honor roll. When she made the Dean’s list, she didn’t tell anyone but her Aunt Donna. When she got the letter from the school, she thought it was silly, but she was excited when she showed her aunt. It wasn’t something that she felt like she could show Brooke. Her mother didn’t see the point of going to a Community College, she was working at one of the best companies in the world, and she had a family that had money. She didn’t need this…

But when she showed her Aunt Donna, Donna told her that she was proud of her. The letter had been framed and anyone who came to Donna's House would see it.

She ended up getting her AA in interior design. A lot of things had happened in the interim, she had Beth, she got married to Liam… she even got divorced from Liam. She wasn’t too mad at that, she actually felt that it was the best thing to happen to her. Sometimes she felt like Steffy knew she was giving her a blessing by firing her.

Every now and then she would ask Donna how everything was going at FC, Donna pretended that Hope really wanted to know how business was going, but she could read the lines. She knew how important Hope’s relationship with Steffy was and always would be.

Hope finally got what she wanted when her divorce with Liam had been finalized. It was one thing to file but it was another thing to actually have a paper that said that you were free. She felt like she could finally move on in one phase of her life. Things were going well on an academic front; it was nice to be able to have more of her life in her control. She told herself that she was going to be committed to co- parenting and hoping for the best.

That was the only thing that she could promise, she wanted Beth to have the best life possible. That’s why she wanted more for herself. She didn’t know how the future would turn out and how things were going to work... In some ways she felt that she started over. After she wanted her divorce from Liam, she moved out of Brooke’s home. She told her mother that she didn’t care for their relationship or are trying to repair anything with Liam.

She knew that she was going to get a lot of resistance from Brooke, but she moved on anways. She told her mother that she was moving out of the property as soon as possible. Brooke kept asking her where this was coming from, but Hope said it was always there. She was tired of having people like Brooke tell her to forgive Liam, to excuse this emotional abuse and manipulations. She wasn’t going to live in a delusional world where she was going to wait and wait an excuse this man who didn't deserve her. She was not going to be like Brooke pining away for Ridge even though he had clearly moved on along time ago. Brooke couldn’t get it into her head that life was passing her by, she had been waiting 3 plus decades for a man who wanted nothing to do with her.

Hope wasn’t going to be the one to listen to her mother push her towards Liam and waste her life away being with someone that she didn't love. Steffy was right, her life was unfulfilled and a dark shack pretending at a life she didn't want. When she had moved back in with Brooke, she had suddenly let other voices become her own. She started drinking the Kool-aid again and she knew that she had to stop herself before she wasted another X number of years.

It wasn’t ideal for Hope to move in with her aunt. She knew that Donna didn’t care, she knew that she always had a place there no matter what. Hope was thankful for her because she wanted to focus her money on school and her child. She didn’t want anything from Liam. She also didn’t think that Liam had anything worth taking. He had been unemployed since Steffy filed for divorce.

She was figuring her life out. She was content with just watching her daughter grow up. She was working on her bachelor’s degree and it was a good thing that she had a place that she could go to without worrying about expenses. She could focus all of her money on school and all of the hidden costs that came from it.

With FC being in her rearview she didn’t have that vehicle anymore to pay for her education, but she wasn’t too upset at that fact. She liked being the person to pay for her tuition bills. She liked being able to buy her books and supplies for her classes. She finally felt like she was taking charge of her life.

Donna kept telling her that her future was going to be bright, it took a long time to believe but hope felt that she could finally see that her aunt’s words we’re becoming the truth.


	25. Chapter 25

Today Liam had a visit with Beth and Hope. Ever since they had gotten a divorce, they have been committed to co-parenting. Hope took a lesson out of Steffy’s book and decided that supervised visitation was the best route.

When Hope got there, she could see that Liam looked distracted. He looked like he was far away even though they were in the same room.

“Hey…” Liam really didn’t know how he was going to go about this…

“Hi Liam…” Hope looked at him and she felt like this was going to be somewhat awkward. She didn't know why or how but she felt like something was weird…

“Hey I wanted to talk to you about something.” Liam felt nervous, him beating around the bush only made it stronger.

“OK, what is there to talk about?” Hope really felt like the tension rose in the room.

“It’s just that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I owe you an apology. It’s been long overdue for me to do it but Hope I really need you to know that I apologize for all of the hurt that I put you through. You didn’t deserve it and there was a lot of projection on my part.”

Hope started to wonder where this was coming from, maybe once upon a time she would have loved to hear something like this from Liam, but she knew with him, she had had to read between the lines. Every time Liam had a bout of introspection, it was usually followed by some kind of manipulative tactic. It made Hope narrow her eyes.

“I guess I should be saying thank you, if this makes us a better co-parenting team with you apologizing to me then great but Liam it’s been quite a bit of time. I feel like the timing of this is a little suspect because we just got our divorce finalized.” Hope pointed to the elephant in the room. Why was Liam waiting until now to apologize to her? Normally she would be all for accepting apologies, but it just seemed very off that this was the time that Liam wanted to be apologetic. He had so much time within the last six months to do it and he said not a word.

“I guess the divorce being finalized was kind of one of those pushes. It made everything real to see a paper that said that our union was dissolved. This came from my actions and my inaction. I want to accept the blame, I am the one that destroyed what we have. It’s taken me a lot of time and a lot of soul searching. I have thrown away so much in my life, and I don’t know why because I thought to myself this was it, we were having Beth and we were happy and we’re going to have a family and somehow I sabotaged that. I believed things about you that were not only untrue but I was unfair to you. I didn’t let you explain or have a chance to defend yourself. I didn’t treat you as if you were my partner and that was wrong with me. I just want you to know that.” Liam felt like he was putting his heart on the line. He was looking at Hope wondering what could be, how could they come back from this…

Hope on the other hand was a little skeptical, she wanted to believe in Liam’s words. She wanted to believe that he really valued the words that he was saying to her now, she did want an apology… She was trying to make the best of the situation and have a family for their daughter. She wanted to believe that he was sincere because she had to be stuck with him raising their child. Even though she wanted to be all of these things it didn’t mean that she did. She felt like there was some kind of ulterior motive to all of these words.

Sure she thought to herself Liam could be feeling apologetic because of seeing that the divorce had been finalized be sorry for not believing in her, jumping to conclusions and blaming her for things that she shouldn’t have been blamed for. For yelling at her and not letting her have some kind of chance to defend herself. But this was Liam, there was always something around the corner with him. He loved to butter people up then drop bombs on them.

“Liam where is this coming from, we have gotten past this and we are in a decent co-parenting space I don’t see why we need to look at the past. I have gotten over all of that. It doesn’t mean that I want to talk about it or relive it. If it has nothing to do with co-parenting Beth, I don’t really see why we need to be talking about it.” Hope wanted to shut this kind of conversation down. She didn’t want to talk about that time anymore. She saw no use in it, it had nothing to do with Beth, so she really didn’t care to hear about it.

“But Hope, I do think we need to talk about it, I want to get on a better page. Beth deserves to have both of us, she deserves the best.”

Hope really didn’t like the way that Liam was saying it… she didn’t understand why he was talking in such cryptic terms.

“Yes, our daughter does deserve the best and we're doing the best for her with our situation Liam. I don’t see how rehashing the past is going to do anything for our daughter in the present or in her future.” Hope wanted to stay firm on her boundaries. Anything that had nothing to do with Beth she didn’t want to hear about it.

“Yeah we are doing the best within our situation Hope. But don’t you think our situation can change?” Liam was trying to get Hope to see exactly where he was coming from.

“Why would I ever think that our situation should change, Liam we are done and the state of California has decided to sever our legal ties.”

“I don’t care what the state of California is saying, we have a bond that extends past legal okay! We have loved each other for years, there is no piece of paper that can change that. We have a daughter that is a symbol of that love. We can have that again…” Liam was ready to make Hope see where he was coming from.

“You have got to be kidding me, where the hell is this coming from Liam? What kind of game are you playing with me?! We have finally gotten our divorce and the first thing that you tell me is that you want to be with me. How long have you had to say ‘Hey Hope maybe we should rescind our petition’ you had so long to say something and you’re telling me that now you are conveniently ready to be with me again… This is absolutely comical. Like I honestly do not believe what I’m hearing right now.”

“Hope I was just scared, I was trying to figure out everything with all of the drama that's been happening over the last couple of months. I know that I had such a slow response but I was just trying to play catch up with everything that was happening in my life.”

“No… Playing catch up that’s what you’re really going to tell me right now? You got Steffy pregnant… I see this now. Steffy doesn’t want to be with you and that’s why you are somehow remembering all of the love that we have and this incredible bond that extends more than a piece of paper could ever understand. I see everything right now. Liam you are having another child, with your ex wife and you want me to somehow take you back after we have just gotten a divorce and you've had nearly half a year to do something about it and you haven't. Steffy doesn’t want you which means you think that you’re gonna swing your pendulum to me? I will cut off your pendulum if you really think that’s going to happen…” Hope had enough of this. She couldn’t believe the audacity of Liam. She figured that Steffy must have rejected him or he did something that pushed her towards the edge and she wasn't going to take it lying down and now he was looking at her. Wanting them to be a family again. Like she would ever put herself through that.

“Hope there’s not anything stopping us from being together, I wanted to tell you something and I really think that I can change our lives for the better…”

“I doubt there could be anything that brings me back to you Liam.” Hope was finally free why would she ever return to Liam…

“Steffy isn't having my child…” Liam didn’t know how else to say it but he wasn't going to mince words anymore. He could be truthful, there wasn’t anything tying him more to Steffy than his first born child.

Hope was trying to absorb the information that Liam just told her, Steffy was not having Liam’s child. First she thought to herself was Steffy didn't lose the baby. But then the fact that Liam had no emotion about it made her feel that Steffy was still pregnant.

“What do you mean that Steffy is not carrying your child?”

“I meant what I said, Steffy is not having my child. The father of her child is not me. There is nothing stopping us from being together. That is what tore us apart…”

“No Liam, you are what tore us apart, your cheating is what tore us apart. It didn’t matter if Steffy had a baby or not, it didn't change the fact that you somehow thought I was cheating on you and instead of communicating with me. You went running to Steffy and drowned your sorrows in her vagina.”

“And I’m sorry about that, but with this new information, we can move forward. Don’t we owe it to ourselves to give Beth the best…”

“Beth is getting the best that she has because I am giving it to her with Liam. I am not going to be with you, I don’t want to be with you. The fact that you think that I’m going to get back with you just because Steffy doesn’t want to be with you means that you need help, you are definitely delusional if you think that. I’m not going to do the back and forth and I don’t want to hear this time as the last time. Or our love can overcome everything that has been put in our way. The truth of it is Liam, I don’t love you, yes, you are the father of my child and I have to co-parent with you but I don’t need to spend time with you. I don’t want to spend time with you. Why would you think that I want to spend time with someone who has the emotional maturity of a 12 year old? You hear one thing so you do everything you can to sabotage your relationships. But that’s not my problem. It hasn’t been my problem since the day I filed.”

“But Hope I’m willing to change, I can admit my faults and we can go to counseling and we can get back on track but we owe it to ourselves to see. We owe it to ourselves in our past and the years that we have loved each other. I know that I did wrong but I’m so ready to give us another try…”

“Liam that would mean that I would want that too and thing about it is I don’t, I don’t want to be with you, I don’t want to see where this goes. I have no desire for this. I like my life, I like that it is without you. I don’t want to be your lover, hell I don’t even want to be your friend. Outside of us being co-parents, I don’t want any kind of relationship with you. And the best part is I don’t need to have any other relationship with you. We have no ties to each other besides our child.”

“Hope you can possibly mean that, you came back into town ready to pick up where we left off…”

She came back for Steffy… that’s when things started to click for her.

Hope just started to laugh, she laughed such a hearty laugh that it scared her daughter. And she just couldn’t stop, she didn’t want to stop. It was infectious that it made Beth laugh.

“I just realized this, Steffy waited for us to be completely divorced before she dropped this bomb on you. She knew this whole time that you couldn't be the father of her child, this is actually very funny. And now look at you, you came running to me. My goodness, you are so pathetic. She must have been waiting for you to fuck up, she knew that you were going to mess up and she got you good. The best part of it is, it's a double whammy for you because you get neither of us. That’s why you didn’t contest our divorce because you thought you were just going to be with Steffy. You had it in your head that you’re having another child and since I wanted a divorce from you, you were just going to pick up the pieces with having Steffy in your life. And she knew that you would because you're so predictable. It’s actually pretty brilliant. She used your own games against you. And now that this child is not yours, you wanna come back to me and you wanna be such a great dad to Beth, it suddenly has to be as a family and us together and married. Liam you are a joke. I still can’t believe that Steffy got you so good. Damn she was patient, I need to give her a round of applause.” Hope actually started clapping. She thought to herself Steffy played a well played game.

“Why are you trying to give her the satisfaction, we can be together…”

“Yeah that’s never going to happen, I’m gonna cut this visit short because it was very clear that you didn't have any intention of spending time with our daughter. Your intention was to somehow get me to believe in your BS again. I don’t care, and I’m never going to care. Go find another woman and go fry her self-esteem. But leave me and my daughter out of it.”

Hope got up and left the cliff house. She was still laughing. As she slammed the door shut, Liam could still hear her laughing. He was sitting in the cliff house all by himself, thinking how did he get here? He went from having a sound marriage to possibly having another child only to learn that his ex-wife conned him into thinking her child was his. And the wife he lost because of it, just laughed in his face And figured out what Steffy did to him without even telling her.


	26. Chapter 26

Hope wanted to get out of the house, she knew that she needed to get work done but it felt stifling to be in there by herself. Usually she would love the silence, it helped her be at her most productive. But the silence felt deafening. She thought to herself maybe she was doing too much studying. Maybe she needed to take a break, she decided that she was going to go out and have a nice lunch and treat herself.

Hope didn’t have a specific food she was in the mood for, she just ended up driving around until something caught her eye. As much as she didn’t want to think about it, she couldn’t help but think about what Liam told her. Steffi had played a long game with him. Sometimes she still laughed to herself, thinking about it sometimes sent her into fits.

Liam for so long had been able to use his charms too get exactly what he wanted. Those same tactics brought his downfall. She wondered how foolish Liam felt, the fact that he tried to somehow get her back only made her laugh even more. He couldn’t run his game on Steffy so he was trying to set his sights on her. Sometimes she really wanted to just tell Liam the whole truth, no one wanted him.

When she got into the restaurant, the hostess asked her how many in her party. She long stopped being embarrassed when she said it’s just a party of 1. There was something about feeling powerful in saying it. She used to never go out if she was going to be the only one who ate. It made her feel so self conscious, thinking people in the restaurant were looking at her. She knew that I was stupid because no one really cares, no one’s really paying attention outside of their own business to look at why she was lonely. But it was a trick that her anxiety used to play on her. She thought she could feel eyes just judging her on the fact that she was alone.

She had to push herself, she had to keep eating alone outside to get comfortable with the idea. It took a long time, in a couple of panic attacks, but she felt like she was on the other side of it. She could enjoy a meal without thinking that people were laughing at her for eating alone.

Hope decided to keep it light and get the soup of the day. As she was eating, she didn’t know how it happened or even why… She saw the bountiful hair bouncing, the stilettos clacking on the tile floors. It was Steffy… Hope thought that she looked overwhelmingly beautiful, you couldn’t even tell that she was near 8 months pregnant. It actually made Hope wonder, how far along was Steffy? How far along was she when she had sex with Liam?

Hope didn’t know how Steffy did it, but it was like she knew that someone was staring at her… she could even pinpoint the direction it was coming from. Steffy looked at her, and she gave her a wide smile. Hoped really looked, it didn’t seem smug or even like it was a smirk.

Steffy started to walk towards her direction, it wasn’t fair how Steffy could just glide into a seat with such grace. When help was pregnant, she used to just plop down.

“Hello Hope…” stuffy smile still didn’t leave her face.

It made Hope feel a sense of ease, maybe their conversation wouldn’t be Laden with anything less than civility.

“Hi Steffy, how are you?” the words tumbled out of Hope’s mouth, some things didn't change. The desperation to know how Steffy was doing was in her voice.

It made Steffy smile harder, she loved the reaction as she could elicit from Hope.

“I’m doing very well, how are you? How is Beth?” Steffy was definitely interested in knowing. This was Phoebe’s sister, even though the thing Phoebe and Beth had in common was the lapse in sanity on the part of their mothers.

“I’m doing good, thank you for asking. Beth is doing great, she’s growing up too fast. You know all about that, how is Phoebe?” Hope realized that this was probably one of the few times that she actually called Steffy’s daughter by her given name. She used to call her Kelly, because that’s what Liam called the child.

“She's doing really good, you’re right she is growing up too fast. I wish I could flash freeze her sometimes, but I also love the adventure of her growing up. Would you like to see some pictures?”

Hope was surprised that Steffy was being so… She didn’t know why she was thinking that Steffy was being any different. This was the true Steffy…

“I’d love to see pictures.”

Steffy had dedicated albums for her daughter. She had picture after picture of Phoebe doing just about everything. It was no different than when she was growing up and her mom used to catalog everything they did. She used to find it so cumbersome to be on tape, but now that she has her own child, she could see why Taylor wanted to capture every moment of their lives. Even before everything happened with her sister, her mother used to watch videos of them when they were younger. Now they all love to watch movies of their younger selves. it was a good way to remember how her sister sounded, she could catalog every single freckle on phoebe’s face. She knew that some people lost their loved ones, but what hurts the most is that the mind started to forget the timber in their voice or imperfections that made their loved one unique.

“She's so beautiful. You must be so proud of her.”

“I am, out of anything and everything that I do, my proudest achievement is to be able to make her smile or laugh.”

“I feel the same way about Beth, would you like to see some pictures of her?”

“Of course I do, she is Phoebe’s sister…”

Hope went into her phones pictures and started sorting them. She had her own albums for her daughter period to hear Steffy cooing over her daughters photos, made her heart pitter patter.

“Liam told me what you did…” Hope didn't know if Steffy had any clue about her knowledge.

“Oh did he now? He did always try to work fast.” Steffy started smiling thinking about how wonderful her plan was. She was still smiling, basking in the glow of Liam’s hurt. It felt better than any tan she’s ever gotten, it was almost as good as when she was in the South of France, the only thing that made the trip more memorable than Liam’s begging… was Hope eating her out on a private beach in Saint Tropez.

“Yes he did, I thought it was incredibly peculiar how he was practically begging me to take him back after our divorce had been finalized. I didn’t know the full scope of it, but I felt that something had to have happened with you. I knew in some way you had to have rejected him…”

“I only gave Liam what he had coming to him.”

“You told him that you were pregnant with his child and you knew that he wasn't… You must have had a lot of fun with that.”

“Actually I didn’t tell Liam that I was pregnant with his child, I told him I was pregnant… We also happen to have slept together. He made an inference, it just happened to be wrong. I won’t lie and tell you that I didn’t want him to have that inference, I did… He was perfectly content with lying. He didn’t want to tell you the truth and I was going to drag it out of him no matter what. I knew that Liam would be gullible. He walks around so cavalier as if he can pull puppet strings, I wanted him to know what it was like to be yanked.”

“I didn’t know that he wanted to keep his cheating secret. Why did I have to be collateral damage though? I know that I fucked us up but I thought we were doing so much better here I thought we were trying to do something for our daughters. We wanted them to be real sisters and I get wanting to stick it to Liam, but it really hurt to think that you hate me still.”

“Hope, everything I did to Liam… Was what he deserved. I didn’t go into this plan to hurt you. What I did to you and when I did it… That was about us. What I did to Liam, was to let him know that he was not going to win… He was not going to win that game. Why do you think that you were collateral damage?”

“Because I was married to him Steffy, I had a baby with him.”

“What does that have to do with anything? Hope, I really want you to take a second to think outside of the box, yes… I wanted revenge on Liam. There is so much stuff that you don't even know that could make me hate Liam. Yes, I had anger for you. But I dealt with it that day in the office. My revenge on Liam was the domino and it was a domino by design.”

When Steffy had told Hope to think outside of the box… That’s exactly what she did. She felt a shock, she didn’t notice when Steffy got closer to her, Steffy was rubbing her pussy through her panties.

Her eyes were rolling to the back of her head, she could feel goosebumps on her arms rubbing on the fabric of her long sleeves.

“Steffy… Oh my God…” Hope bit her lip to start from moaning out loud. She couldn’t embarrass herself in this restaurant, there wasn’t a lot of people in there, they would be able to hear her.

“I do like my name falling from your lips, however that’s not a suitable answer to my question. Now… I want you to think about it and give me an answer.” Steffy’s hot breath was having the intended effect on Hope.

It was hard for Hope to have any cognizant thoughts that didn't have to do with wanting to climax. She thought about Steffy’s words... her actions. when she thought about it… Steffy waited to drop the bomb after Hope’s divorce went final. Steffy had told her that marrying Liam was a mistake. Steffy told her that it was okay to be mad at her, but it would be a mistake too share her life with Liam. She would only be punishing herself because she didn’t love Liam. Hope was too stubborn to listen at the time, she had tunnel vision and she wanted to hurt Steffy. But ultimately the person that she hurt the most was herself. She went back on her own convictions to get some misguided revenge. Hope that herself, next Steffy’s revenge, Hope missed her target.

“You wanted me to be free… That’s why you waited the day after the divorce was finalized, you made sure that Liam didn’t have a chance to slither away back to me and try to use our marriage as an excuse to try again. You waited until I was completely free…”

Steffy rewarded Hope, she slipped her hand under the waistband of Hope’s underwear. She started rubbing on her clit furiously. They sat there in silence, while Steffy had her way. Hope’s hands had to grip the table as she climaxed. It helped her focus, so she didn't scream out. Steffy had taken her hand out of Hope’s panties and just licked her fingers. When she did that Hope couldn’t help but moan out. Hope looked at Steffy’s lips with hooded eyes. It was like an avalanche of desire went through her.

Steffy knew that when Hope was focused, she could be incredibly intelligent… she can focus her attentions in the right places. The less distractions she had, the more she could let herself shine. Her revenge on Liam wasn't some singular target for her. When she did something, she always made sure that it reverberated. Steffy tried to be like an earthquake. There’s always the big seismic shift that everyone feels, but sometimes it's the aftershocks that can be more important.

“You always wear my scholar, when you have the right motivation. Every decision that I make, I can usually predict the outcome. How’s school?”

Hope wanted to know how Steffy knew that she was in school. Then she thought about it, she started going to school when she was at FC. She had only told HR about her intentions, but of course Steffy could look into her file if she wanted to.

“Did you look into my file?”

“No Hope, I didn’t need to. I was in that seminar. But even before that, I knew that you would be mad when you came back to FC and wanted to work on the HFTF line only to find out that you would be the spokesmodel and nothing else. But I did that for a reason. When we were together, you would always go about saying how thorough I was and how much you learned from our journeys… in our travels. I saw that you were really interested in it…”

“Well if you thought that was really interested in it, why did you diminish my role within the line?”

“Because even though you had the interest in it, you needed direction, you are not going to be taken seriously by people who have gone to school for years or people who have been in the business for years and grinded out campaign after campaign. You were also mad at me. I knew if I told you anything, you would find a way to do the opposite. So I knew the only way that it was going to be possible for you to get the right motivation was to push you by giving you less. When you became the spokesmodel, it freed up a lot of your time, time to be interested in other things. I knew that you were hungry to learn, I hoped you would take the plunge and you did. That seminar somehow opened your eyes. I didn’t know that it was going to be interior design, but I was happy that I saw you channel yourself into a passion. I love that you took it seriously. When you gave the suggestion to the interior design team... the analysis that you had, I knew that it couldn’t be anything less than you actually taking a class about it. So tell me how is school?”

It was truly something that Hope did not expect. It had been nearly three years since Hope came back. She looked into Steffy’s eyes, trying to find any falseness and she couldn't find any. It made her wanna cry, the only thing that Hope could think to herself was, this was why Steffy was the love of her life. She knew her better than she knew herself. The fact that Steffy could do this from afar really astonished her. She wanted to cry because Steffy had a faith in her that she didn’t even know she had it herself.

“Why did you fire me then?” that was the only thing Hope couldn’t understand.

“I knew when you took the seminar that it would spark something in you, I figured when you are more determined to shadow the interior design team, it meant that you were furthering your education. You were getting deeper into whatever you were studying. Yes, it felt good to fire you for betraying me, but I also knew that you would be challenging yourself and your coursework would be challenging too. You wouldn’t have been able to commit to the work hours required for your job as a spokesmodel as well as go to school full time.”

“It’s only LA City College, it's really not a big deal…” Hope had a knack for being self deprecating, she did it pretty often when she wanted to protect herself. It was a defense mechanism that she learned early on. Brooke said it wasn’t a big deal to go to a Community College.

“Hope, don't do that shit. Don’t diminish your education, it clearly was doing you good because you were impressing the head of the interior design department. And it also impressed me. And plenty of people who work at FC are alumna of LA City College. We provide grants and internships to students who study fashion design there.” It was one of Steffy’s first campaigns when she became CEO. It was her mission to find top tier talent everywhere and the biggest segment of the population that went to college go there.

Hearing Steffy talk so passionate about LA City College made Hope confident about her previous school.

“I’m sorry. I’m really proud to be a graduate from there, it’s just my mom got in my head, she didn't really see the point of me going there but it made me happy. I loved my professors there and they gave me so much knowledge. I was on the Dean’s list. I graduated with my AA degree. It’s sitting on Aunt Donna's mantle at her house. It’s next to Marcus’s college degree, it actually makes me feel like a somebody.” Hope didn't expect to get emotional and cry, but that was an accomplishment for her. It was actually a really big accomplishment for her.

“Oh Hope, you have always been somebody…”

Steffy brought her head closer to Hope’s, she kissed her. It had been so long since they last kissed. It felt like no time had passed by. It was no less passionate than the last time. They both put everything they had in the kiss, the missed time, the passion they had for each other, the comfort that they sought from the other.

Hope broke the kiss, she hated herself for it, but she needed to breathe.

“I go to UCLA now, I’m really close to getting my bachelors.”

“I’m so proud of you. I knew that you could do it, you just needed to have the space to achieve it. I’m glad that you put your foot down and you shoved Liam out of your life. Look at you now, here’s Ms. Dean’s list, you got your degree. I can already tell that Donna was probably screaming your name when you graduated.”

“Yeah, is a pretty amazing day. Marcus even came back to town for it. Carter was there too. It still feels so special to me, to have my family really believe in my achievement.”

“I’m glad that you had people ready to celebrate that. It’s so important to have people who love you also believe in you too. You can only go so far in life doing things yourself… But sometimes it's reaffirming to know that you have people supporting you in your dreams.”

“Like you?” Hope wanted to test the waters. She didn’t know if she was too late, but she knew that she had to try.

“I told you that I would support you, even from afar.”

This wasn’t enough of an answer to Hope. Her heart did feel good at the mention of Steffy supporting her, but she wanted to know more.

“Is it too late for us, are you with the father of your child?” Hope wanted to know was there anyone else in Steffy’s heart.

“Hope I don’t know about us, it’s very complicated. It pains me to say this, but I don’t know if I can trust you to stay. You’ve left me twice and honestly, I have tried to be the best partner I could have been to you and it didn't seem to matter much, you left... Instead of trusting me or talking to me, you left. And no… I’m alone…”

Hope knew that she messed up… she messed up a couple of times. She felt a little bit of hope when Steffy said that she wasn't with anyone. It didn’t mean that they would get back together. But it did make her feel better that there wasn’t a rival in Steffy’s heart. Hope knew that she owed Steffy an explanation for her actions. This was more than about putting her heart on the line… she felt like it was her sanity too. When she looked into Steffy’s eyes she knew that she could tell Steffy everything now. She was finally ready...


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a mention of sexual assault, it is brief and neither ladies are at the center of it, but I wanted to let anyone know just in case.
> 
> There is also a mention of substance abuse and trauma please be advised if you have any triggers.

Hope felt like her heart was in her throat, her palms were sweaty. She tried to wipe her palms on her dress numerous times, she wanted to curse herself that her anxiety inducing hyperhidrosis was rearing it’s head. 

Steffy could see that Hope was visibly exhibiting symptoms of an anxiety attack. She was tempted to call her mother and see what to do. Steffy knew it was something heavy on Hope’s mind for this to happen. Maybe Steffy could have been gentler with her delivery about their future.

She saw Hope open her mouth a couple of times, but no words came out. Her worry only heightened but Hope just turned and held Steffy’s hands. Steffy could feel the clamminess and see bits of sweat at Hope’s temples. She felt a little better when Hope was able to start speaking.

“I couldn’t begin to apologize for my actions. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I walked away from the best thing that's ever happened to me twice. I love you so much and I hurt you and myself. I owe you an explanation. It just it’s so hard to talk about it even now. Some days I still feel the weight of my son and please don’t I think invoke his memory to manipulate you, I’m not trying to use him... I could never use him. I’m just trying to make you understand a little bit of where I’m coming from. I did a lot of things that didn’t make sense. Even when I knew it was a bad choice, it was like I couldn’t stop myself. I think I sabotaged myself because I feel so guilty about being happy. You make me so happy and I didn’t think I could have that. I thought that I could get over the death of my son, I actually thought I did. I was so happy with you and I felt so loved and cherished, I love our life so much. When you said about going home, I felt like I couldn’t move, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I know that your job and your aspirations they are so important to you. I’m starting to see that for myself too. It’s just at those times that I left you, it honestly had nothing to do with you. It had to do with me and things that I thought I could keep buried in the past, I thought I had gotten past them, but I didn’t I don’t know if I have still... I guess I am a work in progress, but who isn’t right? I just really hate bullies, I hate them so bad because I had to leave LA. These magazines and these blogs they were so cruel about my son. I was just trying to find my feet again and these people belittle my pain, they belittle the significance of him. They exploited his death for clicks or money… I don’t know but I knew if I stayed that my sobriety would go out the window. And I didn’t wanna fall down slope, not really living… It was becoming too easy to want to numb the pain and that was… was so scary to me. My therapist explained to me the dangers of even relapsing once. I didn’t want to hurt myself even more. I didn’t wanna hate myself more, blame myself more. I couldn’t face LA, I couldn't even think about anything past our life in Europe. I didn’t want too, I know it was selfish of me to say that we should stay in Europe. I knew that it wouldn’t be tenable for you to try and run everything from there. I kept this from you, it wasn’t because I didn’t trust you or I didn’t love you, I love you more than anything in my life. I always have… But it’s just so hard to be bullied about my son. I let those headlines get to me because I found myself saying maybe they were right. Maybe it was my fault. Second time I left; I didn’t leave your building for 40 minutes. I had a panic attack in the stairwell. I couldn’t take the elevator because I thought to myself that someone might find me and I just couldn’t face anyone. When you said that Bill could have been the father, it made me sick to my stomach. Not because I was ashamed of you or because I didn’t love you it's because he enabled that behavior. He had this relentless campaign into making my life hell, he had the full weight of Spencer Publications raining down on me with the horrible tabloids, but he also had people who idolize him, they were writing horrible things in their blogs about me. He did it for so long, they got to me. It felt like every other day it was a concerted attack and it just ruined my self-confidence. I never told anyone this, not even Donna, but I had a relapse. It was right before I got pregnant the first time, I called my therapist crying. I didn’t know how to handle the fact that Bill was my father-in-law. I had to be around someone who threaten my sobriety. And then when you said that Bill was possibly the father it just brought me back to that moment. It’s so scary being vulnerable, not because I don’t trust you it’s just I hate having to recognize my inadequacies. I don’t expect us to get back together, maybe we were never supposed to be forever. I just know that you made me want more for my life. Even from afar you motivate me, I feel like I can be more than what I see in the mirror…”

Steffy could feel her shaking, their hands were still joined. Hope couldn’t stop the stream of tears they had started. She also found that she didn’t want to. In the past she would have been ashamed at crying, but she wasn't going to minimize how she felt, she knew if she was going to be truthful then she had to do it completely.

Steffy was completely moved by Hope's words. She knew that it took a lot of courage and vulnerability to even admit that. It was one thing to be honest with someone you love but it was completely different having to dig into your trauma and talk about it. She felt like she understood Hope in a way that she didn’t before, Hope’s feelings were justified and valid, she knew as the daughter of a psychiatrist that there was no timetable on trauma, people dealt with it in the best way that they knew how with the resources that they have.

It hurt her to see Hope leave her life, only a couple events in her life hurt her more. Even though that pain felt so guttural, that is what trauma does. It's the kind of pain that can affect more than just the person experiencing it. It can affect relationships, it didn't have to do with a lack of love or a lack of trust, Hope had PTSD from losing her child and the bullying that followed it, she remembered how horrified she was when Wyatt told her that headline a website wrote… Bill is a trigger of that, Steffy still didn't know how in the hell she could be so drunk that she would sleep with Bill? It didn’t even make sense in her mind. It’s been the only time in her life where she couldn’t remember her night.

“Hope, thank you for trusting me to say those words. It’s incredibly hard to deal with PTSD especially without having the option of having mood stabilizers. I’m glad that you were able to take yourself out of a situation where your sobriety would have been compromised or could have been compromised... Yes, it did break my heart when you left, you felt your emotional safety being threatened and lashed out, trauma is a different beast. Sometimes it makes us do irrational things and we can’t stop ourselves no matter how much we want to. It’s not about how much you love someone. I know that you love me, I can see it in your face right now. You dug so deep within yourself to be able to tell me this come I know that you love me profoundly and I’m so grateful that you feel safe enough to tell me this. I can understand your actions so much better now…”

“But if I had told you sooner, then we would have never broken up and then we could have solved it an we wouldn’t be here doing this, I want to be back with you so badly, but I don’t know if it’s too late.”

“Hope, I don’t want you thinking like that, you're telling me now and that's so important and you can't diminish that, it’s a lot of bravery to be able to admit this to anyone including yourself. We would never tell someone who’s been assaulted, that they should have a time limit to disclose that to a significant other because they had some hang ups about sex. It is your right to have time, some people take a whole lifetime to admit these things, it doesn’t make them any less valid. And it doesn’t make them wrong, they took the time they needed to be able to externalize their trauma. I don’t know what’s going to happen with us. I’m freaking pregnant for Pete’s sake. I’m willing to try, if you’re willing to try... But it’s not going to be like Europe, it’ll be three kids between us.” Steffy was in a place where she could entertain a relationship with Hope again. Especially knowing more about Hope’s rationale, she was even more willing to try.

“I don’t care if we had 10 kids between us, I just want to love you, that’s all I’ve ever wanted. If I don't have to do that from afar, I would love that even more.”

Hope risked a kiss with Steffy. It was a risk that was worth it because she poured her heart in that kiss. It felt so amazing to kiss Steffy and know that it was nothing but love and maybe a little lust between them.

“Do you wanna get out of here?” Steffy had a lot of gripes about being pregnant but at the top was the inconvenience of being turned on at the weirdest times.

Hope could clock Steffy’s sexual interest. It started to make her feel funny. It was like Spidey tingles, she guessed she could have called them Steffy tingles.

“Yeah, I’d love to, tell me I can have my favorite delicacy?”

“You can have a feast…”

She was not gonna let Hope come up for air the minute they stepped into her home.

Steffy had given Hope the address to her home. This would be the first person outside of her best friends and her family who would know where she lived. She knew that she could trust Hope with the information.

Hope was not going to let anything like LA traffic get between her and the opening of Steffy’s legs.

When she reached Steffy’s place, Hope couldn’t help but admire the home. She could see herself in it, she could see Beth in it, playing with Phoebe. She didn’t even know if Steffy was having a boy or girl.

“It's a nice place huh?” Steffy knew that she had beautiful taste.

“As someone studying interior design, I can say that this home has impeccable taste, it also looks very lived in, it really puts more charm into the place.” As much as Hope wanted to admire Steffy’s architectural prowess, she had other things on her mind.

Steffy could see the glint in Hope’s gaze, she was going to give Hope what she really wanted. Steffy also needed an outlet, she was tired of doing this for herself. She took Hope to her bedroom and just started to take off her clothes. She didn’t care about being sexy or doing some kind of striptease here they were past that point right now. They could save that for another day.

Hope stripped down to her underwear, she thought that Steffy looked beautiful, even being as heavily pregnant as Steffy was, her belly was much smaller than someone who is supposed to be 8 months pregnant. Her body just really showcased how much time and effort she put into it. It was something Hope was gonna appreciate, all night if she needed to. She certainly wanted to.

Steffy got on the bed and just slipped off her underwear, Hope saw that Steffy was staring at her, when Steffy opened her legs, Hope just felt like she floated to the space between. She gave Steffy a couple of feather kisses, but Steffy didn't want any of that right now. Steffy’s hand directed Hope’s head to exactly where she wanted her to be. Hope use the tip of her tongue savor the sweet tanginess that she missed. She got lost in Steffy’s moans, it made her even more frenzied, she was sucking Steffy’s clit like she found an elusive Blue Raspberry Jolly Rancher. Hope felt that her jaw was starting to get tired after about 15 minutes and making Steffy climax three times, Steffy kept asking for one more and Hope could never stand to disappoint Steffy.

When she made Steffy come again, it actually made Steffy scream, she was sure if Steffy had any neighbors that lived close by they would have been able to hear her.

“I can see that you missed the kitty.”

“Yeah I did, I miss what it feels like to hold your hips down, and try to devour as much of your pussy as I can. I miss the feeling of you riding my face searching for your climax. It makes me so freaking wet, I swear only you can make me this wet.” Hope blushed at her frankness but she didn’t want to hold back anything.

Hope’s words were starting to make Steffy’s libido rise again.

“Come sit…”

Hope move with the quickness; she swiftly took off her underwear and parked herself above Steffy’s face. The first flick from Steffy’s tongue made her bite her lip. She missed this… She couldn’t get enough. She swore that Steffy could flick her tongue back and forth like it had a motor. She pinched her nipples hard; the juxtaposition of pleasure and pain only heightened her desire.

“God… Damn it you know how to fuck me so good… Baby... oh…ooh…don’t stop. Fuck please don’t stop… suck my clit harder!” Hope felt her body becoming more aggressive. She started to slide her pussy on Steffy’s face. “Steffy!” 

Steffy sucked hard and massaged Hope’s clit with her tongue until she came. When Hope came, tears leaked from her eyes. Steffy knew how to always make it intense. Steffy kept slurping Hope up. Hope would have fallen if Steffy wasn’t holding her hips down and her face wasn’t being supported by the headboard. 

She came so good that she left drool on it. 

When Hope could form logical thoughts again, she got under the covers and cuddled with Steffy. She loved the sex, but also she missed the intimacy they had after. She loved to feel Steffy’s body, it was so intimate for her feel their breasts touch, it was more challenging with Steffy being pregnant. She missed their legs in between the other. Their thighs could feel the hot press of the other’s desire. Nothing like waking up with a wet thigh from Steffy’s cunt. 

“Are you doing anything else for the day?” Steffy let yourself be the little spoon, she knew that Hope liked to stick her hand between her legs. Hope didn’t always massage her pussy but just the feel of it felt good for Steffy.

“No, not really, I was thinking of probably taking a nap so I could have more energy too fuck you later. I do have to pick up Beth from daycare but I kind of wish that Donna could do it and I didn’t have to go anywhere.”

“if you wanna do that, I wouldn’t complain. Phoebe is spending the next couple of days with my parents. I have the house all to myself.”

“I think it’s only fair that we take advantage of that. My aunt will ask why I won’t be coming anytime soon. Is it okay to say anything… She’s one of the biggest supporters of our relationship. She said that we would find each other again. Even when I had my doubts.”

“Yeah I don’t mind Donna knowing. She’s not going to take care of Beth unless you tell her the truth. You don’t have to stay if you can’t, I know that our lives are in a different place now with having kids.”

“Yeah, I get it that we have children but Steffy I really don’t wanna go anywhere. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure why not?”

“Who’s the father of your child? If it’s too much to ask you don’t have to answer.”

“There is no father to my child, I got artificially inseminated. I literally chose a guy out of a catalog.”

Hope is so relieved to hear this, it made a lot of potential complications much less complicated now.

“That's nice to hear. Do you think that we could have the life that we were supposed to have when I came back? Is it too late for us?”

“I don’t think so, are you in a place where you can handle being with me here?”

“Yeah, I’m really glad I was able to tell you. I really want us to be together.” Hope didn’t know it came over her but she gently massage Steffy’s cunt, which made her lover moan in protest.

“Not right now, I just want to bask in a reunion. We can fuck later.”

“I hold you to that… How do you think that Liam is going to react to our relationship?”

“He is definitely going to be very upset. he is not going to be able to understand that we can have a relationship outside of him. He may even try to think that he can have the both of us in a poly-amorous relationship and that will be my cue to break his kneecaps.”

Hope laughed when Steffy said she would break Liam’s kneecaps. She thought to herself she would throw Steffy the crowbar.


	28. Chapter 28

Hope had texted Donna asking her aunt to pick up Beth from the daycare. Donna had said okay, but when Hope added that she was going to be gone for the night, it made Donna do a double take.

Donna wanted to know exactly why Hope wasn’t coming home… Hope had to explain that she and Steffy were in contact again.

Steffy and Hope had been in her kitchen when Donna immediately called. The scream that emitted through the phone made it very clear that Donna was very happy at the development. Hope asked her aunt to please calm down, but she felt pretty much the same about her relationship status. The two of them quickly talked to Donna and told her that they were forging ahead and trying to figure things out.

Even though they wanted to be together, they still had to figure how things were going to be. Their lives were very different than the last time they were together as a committed couple. They each had their own child and Steffy had another one on the way.

Steffy made them some food and told her mother about the development. Taylor had been a little skeptical about Steffy’s reunion with Hope. Steffy didn’t betray Hope’s confidence and tell her mother everything that was shared to her, but she did tell Taylor that Hope’s issue was a psychological one, Steffy made an allusion to trauma and when she did, her mother took an understanding to it. Taylor told her daughter if she believes that a relationship is viable with Hope, then she will have to trust her daughter’s judgment. Steffy knew that when she told her mother, her mother was going to have a thaw when it came to Hope.

“Is it weird that I feel like I’m still buzzing…” Hope felt excited about the prospects of her future. For the first time in her life she actually felt that things were going her way. There had never been a time before where she felt confident an sure about her life in almost every facet. She was doing well in school, she felt like she was an engaged mother and she finally got the one thing that she coveted more than anything else.

“No, I don’t think so, I still feel pretty excited myself. It’s like a rush of endorphins just being released on repeat. We do have to discuss what this is going to look like… what are we looking for? What do you want out of this relationship?”

Steffy knew that she had to enact a plan. They were only going to stay under wraps for so long, someone was going to see them at some point,they were going to need to have answers. As much as she didn’t like it, people were going to want to know about her personal life. Being such a public figure people think that they have some kind of right to know everything about her.

“I honestly don’t know, I was just so happy about us getting back together that I didn’t even really think about tomorrow, I’m still trying to process the now. Feels like a dream and I really don’t want to wake up.”

“It feels like that for me too but we're going to need to have a plan. People are bound to find out and even though we have told the most important people in our lives, there is a network of drama that surrounds our lives.”

Steffy didn’t have to say out loud, Hope could decipher that that network of drama happened to be Liam.

“I don’t care what Liam tries to do. I refuse to let him or anyone else be at the center of our relationship. No one but us matters when we talk about us. I love you and I’m gonna spend as much time as I can being happy, you’re a key to that happiness. If you want to do a press release or I don’t know… walk out of the Ivy together, I don’t care will do that. I let so many other people and so many distractions rule my narrative. I don’t wanna do that anymore. We’re going to do things on our terms and our feelings are going to be at the center of it. For so much of my life, I was always worried about what other people would think about me. I was the people pleaser and acquiescing to what other people wanted, but I can’t do that about this. I can’t do that about us come on no one gets to have a slice of our relationship. That’s where I feel like we are entitled to be selfish. If Liam has a problem with that then it's going to be his problem. I’m your girlfriend and one day hopefully I will be your wife…”

Steffy was really appreciating how Hope was choosing her words. She knew better than anyone else that Hope could cause her own self destruction by worrying about other people's opinions. She was happy to see that Hope wasn’t going to let anyone dictate her happiness. Her girlfriend was going to take life by the horns instead of just playing in the shadows.

“Okay, I can see that you are ready to let the world know that you love me. That’s really encouraging to hear. I’m honestly surprised that nobody in Europe actually caught on to us, but that’s neither here nor there. So we know what we're going to do on the public front, but how are we going to navigate us seeing each other? You’re busy with school and I’m busy with work and we have kids. It’s nice that we both have people in our lives who are ready to watch them when we need them too, but it's not like we can make it a regular habit.”

Steffy was a big time planner, she wanted to know how things were going to move because her schedule was so packed that she literally had to schedule and just about everything.

“When I came back, we were gonna start our lives with Phoebe, I was looking forward to that, except we both know about what happened next, but I want us to share our lives with each other. When I came back, I wanted to be a family with you. Even if it was just for a couple of minutes, I was excited at the prospect of being a parent with you. That’s something I feel so strongly about in my heart. If it’s not overstepping, I want to live with you… it would be amazing for Beth and Phoebe to live under the same roof. You’re going to have this baby. It can be our baby… Am I getting ahead of myself?” Hope felt vulnerable and presumptuous, she felt like she jumped the gun a little bit when she said that she could be a parent to Steffy’s unborn child.

Steffy hated how her emotions could be so all over the place with pregnancy, when Hope started talking about her child being their child… it did something to her, it made her feel a happiness. She was ready to go at it alone, she made the decision to expand her family without anyone’s approval besides her own. She just looked at Hope and could see the veracity in her eyes.

“You really want to move in? Are you ready for another child, you want to do this blended family thing?”

“Well yeah, even when we were just co-parenting and trying to be a cohesive unit when I was married to you know who, I don’t know I used to love those times. I used to love them so much, I didn't even think about Liam’s role, a lot of the time he wasn’t even there. It was just us and the girls and making sure that they had a stable relationship and in each others lives. I loved it and the little bits of time that I got to spend with you in any capacity was honestly the brightest part of those days. I don’t know maybe what our future holds is even better than that, has to be… because we won't have to co-parent really… it would be us together and just being moms to these wonderful children. You’re the person who helped me see that it was possible again to want to have kids.” Hope just found herself getting excited at the prospect of them being a team. Taking care of their children together here… there was no one in the world that she would want to do that with more than with Steffy.

“Yeah, the coparenting wasn’t the worst, I like the idea of the girls trying to be sisters, that’s what they are. It’s a biological fact unfortunately… This would be an awesome adventure for them, to be together... They’re really close in age and this child is going to be just as close in age with them too, that was the whole reason I got pregnant again, so Phoebe to have that experience that I had with my sister and my brother.”

“It’s the same reason that I wanted best to really have those play dates with Phoebe, I wanted to give her something that I grew up without. I have so many siblings and I grew up with none of them. I didn’t want her to feel any of that loneliness that I felt and honestly a lot of my issues stem from that loneliness. Maybe if there was someone in the trenches with me, maybe I would have been better off.” It made Hope feel like her and Steffy were on the same page even though they had different rationales behind why they wanted their children to grow up together as siblings.

“Well it seems as if you know what you want…”

“Yeah, I do, and I love being able to get re acquainted with you, in every sense.” Hope started to lick her lips as she reminisced.

“Well what are you looking to move in… You know I’ve been having to do things on my own that I would rather have someone else do.”

Steffy traced her finger, up and down the center of Hope’s body, from her collar to her navel, Steffy had a light press on the open skin. They had time to burn as the chicken in the oven was baking.

Hope felt like she was in a Twilight zone, everywhere this Steffy touch felt like it was electric. She shuddered against the kitchen island. It escaped her notice the Steffy had blocked her in. Steffy had crowded around her and the island counter was starting to dig into Hope’s back.

“Well what were these tasks that you had to do by yourself, is it something that I can help you out with?” Hope is trying her hand at being seductive, it usually did not end well, but Steffy did like the fumbling attempts. She found that to be the sexiest of all.

“I’m sure you can…You see with me being so advanced in my pregnancy, I have all these hormones just coursing through my body. It’s been so hard trying to satisfy myself when it's just this endless cycle. Are you able to satisfy me?” Steffy got even closer to Hope… She licked Hope’s neck slowly from the bottom to the top of the column and then bit her earlobe.

Hope’s eyes fell closed. She thought that she was supposed to be the one to seduce Steffy. Her plans with her girlfriend never usually turned out the way she intended, but she was definitely not a complainer.

“I think I’m very capable of satisfying you, I think you were very agreeable about my body of work yesterday…” Hope just salivated over her handywork yesterday.

It made Hope moan when she saw Steffy biting her lip.

“That was a nice sample, but I’m going to need more than that. The more my pregnancy advances, the harder it is for me to be pleased…” Steffy started planting kisses along Hope's jawline.

“Tell me how I can be of service?” Hope didn’t know what came over her, she used her hands to push herself up on the counter and wrapped her legs as Steffy’s waist and pull.

When she made her move, it excited Steffy… it excited her.

“I want you to eat me out until I cry and beg you to stop. I want to be reduced to a moaning mess only for you to go get the strap and then fuck me from the back. I want you to fuck me so good that I leave a trail of drool on the sheets. Can you handle that?” The vulgarity that fell from steffy’s lips coupled with the gentle tracing a Steffy’s finger is on Hope’s chin turned Hope on even more. She wanted to scream her frustration because she was so turned on.

When Hope heard of the mention of the strap, she remembered being at both ends of it. She loved it, she loved being able to pound into Steffy into the bed and make her scream. It was so delicious to swallow those screams.

Hope gave Steffy a little push which Steffy obliged to. Hope started leaving the room and when she turned, she saw that Steffy was still standing there.

“Hope where are you going?”

Hope look confused because she thought that they were going to get their freak on…

“I thought I was going to be fulfilling your desires…”

“Oh you will, you don’t have to worry about that... If you’re not up for the task then I will punish you for not being able to fulfill me, but that’s going to have to wait till after dinner because I am hungry…”

Hope laughed even though inside she was miserable, she came back into the kitchen and sat on the stool while she waited for dinner to be finished. She saw Steffy take her sweet time moving around the kitchen.

She thought about it… why did Steffy try to seduce her before dinner and not after? She got her answer when she saw his Steffy smirks all throughout dinner. Steffy was a temptress, she knew exactly what she was doing and when she was doing it. It was her mission to make Hope hot and bothered so she was doing at the dinner table, she saw Steffy eating slower than usual. The way she was prolonging the torment really got to Hope. She was going to make Steffy pay for that… She knew that she was playing right into Steffy’s hands. With all this pent-up energy, she was really going to bring it.

Steffy wanted to laugh, she could see that Hope was trying to decipher everything, she really didn’t care if Hope caught on. She wanted Hope to be riled up, she wanted that sexual energy to be at an all-time high… She knew that Hope’s frustration was mounting, she was counting on it.

Steffy was going to ensure that her night was long and rough. Every time she took a glance at Hope, she became surer that she was going to get everything that she bargained for.


	29. Chapter 29

Bill didn’t know where the stream of guilt came from, but he didn’t like it… Not one bit. He had thought if he said he was a potential father to steffi’s child, they could have finally had the future that he always wanted.

She had a way of bringing out something within him. She was the ultimate kind of partner; she was worthy of him and he knew that they could have been a power couple of the century. She was born to be a leader, as was he. She knew how to take charge and make you want to be more. She knew how to challenge you and motivate you; she was the ultimate… the pinnacle. She was what he waited his whole life for.

He saw his chance; he couldn't believe that his son messed up yet again. He didn’t understand how someone could discard Steffy like Liam had, time and time again. He didn’t understand how someone could have his seed and yet chase lesser women. Women who were not even worth his time. But then he thought about it, Liam was pathetic on most days and downright desperate on his worst ones. He didn’t know how a sniveling child was his progeny.

When he had designed his plan, he knew that Liam was always going to be named the father, but he thought that Steffy would see that he would step up. He would have been able to show her that he was serious about starting their life together.

But he never got the chance, Steffy didn’t care to give him the time of day. She told him to stay away from her, he felt like he was being treated like Liam was. He wasn’t the pariah, he was the one that love Steffy the way that she needed to be, he was ready to be her husband, but nothing panned out that way.

He loved it when he couldn’t feel things, it didn't matter to him when he broke hearts, he felt those were personal problems that had nothing to do with him. But that was before Steffy, he would burn down the world for her, but he didn’t wanna be the reason that her world was the one that was burning. He hated the guilt that he felt, He could only feel bad when he knew that Steffy was hurting. It had been sometime since he started the whole chain of events. He thought about it a lot, weighed heavy on his mind. He thought to himself maybe if he hadn’t done something like that, maybe Steffy and Liam would still be together.

“You know you’re not Superman right, your eyes are not gonna shoot lasers and burn whatever is killing you right now.” Justin had come into the room; he saw that Bill was in deep thought. It was like Bill was trying to sort some things out in his head.

Justin’s voice had broken Bill’s concentration, he didn’t even notice that Justin had come into his office. This was his best friend; he knew that he could tell his best friend anything but he really didn't feel like dealing with the disappointment right now. He knew that Justin could clean up his messes, but he really didn't want to admit what he had done.

“Do you think that if we say things after the fact, that it’s worth it?” even though Bill didn't want to admit what he said, his best friend was a great sounding board. He could always count on Justin to shoot information straight. No BS, the unfiltered truth that he appreciated.

“Well Bill, it would depend on what that is. Don’t tell me that you have done something yet again that can put this company in a tailspin?” Justin was trying to figure out if he was going to have to cancel yet another vacation, he had already promised Charlie that he was going to take him to the European championships. It was one thing that really bonded them, soccer was something that they shared a love for. He was trying to be more present for his family.

Charlie and Maddie, we're not replacements for Marcus. But he didn’t have any relationship with Marcus when he was a child. He missed out on all of the milestones. He loved his son, but he wishes he had those years with him. It wasn’t something he blamed on Donna for because he knew that they were young and not in the same place like other parents would be. Charlie and Maddie were the closest thing that he had to Drusilla besides Devon and Lily. On his way to being a high powered attorney, he had always made excuses to his family, every reunion that they were supposed to have he would cancel at the last minute, breaking Mamie Barber’s heart, she had taken care of almost all of them at one point. He had a lot of regrets, Drusilla wasn’t here anymore, Olivia was on the other side of the country. He was trying to be a better Barber; he was trying to be a better family member and somehow Bill could find a way to ruin that. The man couldn’t help but create a scandal. It was always very convenient. He hated that Bill had such impeccable timing.

“Calm your horses Justin, Spencer publications isn’t at risk for anything. You know I’m just trying to be more fulfilled in my personal life. I may have done something to hurt someone that didn't deserve it, I’m just trying to figure out how to navigate that.” Bill didn't mention any names because he didn't know if he was ready to admit his fault.

Justin knew that this had to be something that concerned Steffy, he knew that it couldn’t have been about his kids, Katie didn’t give him enough latitude with Will and his other sons were grown. Outside of them working for Spencer, they really kept to themselves. Justin knew that whatever it was, it boiled down to Steffy. He didn’t like it whatsoever.

When he confronted Lily about her behavior the other day, she did not hold back anything. He had known that Dru have Lily in a boarding school when she was still modeling in Paris. What Justin didn’t know with that Lily had been best friends with Steffy and Steffy’s twin sister, they had a little group between four of them. Lily was very protective of Steffy, it was one of her best friends since she was a kid. It shocked him because of how small the world could be sometimes. Lily did not appreciate any kind of relationship with a man who was old enough to be her father having any kind of relations way her best friend.

Lily was disgusted, she was disgusted because she felt that Bill took advantage of a situation… Steffy couldn’t remember anything about that night And it left a sour taste in Lily’s stomach. In her mind, Lily thought if a woman could not remember her night due to alcohol, she could not consent to any kind of sexual relation with anyone. Justin didn’t like that line of thinking but he couldn’t argue it.

“Then what does this have to do with anything Bill, you’re not a person who feels bad about anything so for you to even tell me that, I know that it’s going to be bad. So just tell me now…”

Bill looked uncomfortable, that only made Justin want to know what was going on even more. He wanted to know what had bill so spooked that he would have the look on his face.

“I told a lie, it got so out of hand and I kept quiet because once it happened, I couldn’t take it back.”

Justin didn’t know why, but he started to feel as if he could just punch Bill. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew they had to do with stuffy.

“Bill what the hell did you do?”

“I said that I slept with Steffy, but I didn’t… She fell asleep and I just thought to myself it didn't matter because I could raise my grandchild as my own and finally give Steffy was she needed. She needed a partner who was all about her and her only. I could give her that, Liam was in no position to do that. She deserved more than the part-time husband who was hero to everyone else.” It felt so good for Bill to let this off his chest, he felt less of a burden now.

When he looked at Justin, he saw an angry man. He knew that Justin wouldn’t have been happy, but he really didn’t expect this kind of reaction.

“When is it ever enough for you? Yes Liam is pathetic, but you know better... at least I thought you did. You allowed Steffy to think that something happened between the two of you. And she doesn’t remember this Bill, the fact that it didn't happen is important but that's not the most important thing right now. She was drinking, her judgment was impaired. She couldn’t consent to any of those acts… she could have sued you in civil court, she could own this fucking company. But you didn’t actually sleep with her, you didn’t actually rape her. You just allowed her to believe there's something happened between the two of you. It was your goal to ruin her marriage. You couldn't let Liam do that all by himself, you made her look like some kind of vindictive person. You always go on about loving Steffy, and you do this to her. You knew the whole time that her daughter was always Liam’s child. Her life was hell. Your son made her life hell, he was acting like a mini version of you. You mean to tell me that this whole time you have been holding on to the truth and you said nothing. You allowed Liam’s venom to control Steffy’s life. She went into labor early man. She could have lost her child; you knew that she had a high risk pregnancy and you had so many chances to say something and now is when you wanna get this off your chest! What is wrong with you?” Justin really could not believe that this was what Bill wanted to talk about. It made him so sick to his stomach, how could he be friends with someone like this? He would step up on anyone’s back to get what he wanted. He claimed to love Steffy and he saw all the destruction in Steffy’s life and did he raise a finger? He said nothing.

“I didn’t think that this was what was going to happen when I said it. I couldn’t take it back at that point. What was done was done.”

“Save that shit for someone who believes that, I’ve been friends with you for too long. I know you don’t believe that. Things didn’t go your way, so you let lying dogs lie. It was great for you because if you can’t have Steffy, it was great because Liam wasn’t going to be able to have her either.” Justin felt like a chump. For so long he was there to enable Bill's behavior, he was Bill’s right-hand man. Anything that needed to be swept under the rug, he was the one who had the broom.

“That's not how it happened; I feel terrible about everything that happened to Steffy come I couldn’t foresee that happening. I didn’t want that to happen.”

“Bill it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter what your intentions was, that was the reality of the situation. A situation that you caused. I can’t believe you; you think that you're so smart and that you can perceive every outcome, but look at what happened, you shit the bed and it’s Steffy that had to clean it up. She have to pay for all of your BS.”

“You think I don’t know that. I feel terrible about all of it. I just wanted to have the chance of giving her the life that she was supposed to have.”

“You are not supposed to be the one to determine her life. You were trying to play God with the situation! You were trying to give yourself the life that you wanted, you didn’t give her no freaking choice. And look what happened, she didn’t want to. She’d rather be alone then to ever deal with any of you. You need to tell the truth. And I’m not talking about to me. You need to tell her exactly what you did, at least you could give her the peace of mind to think that you didn't take advantage of her.”

Justin couldn’t even stay in the room; he was so upset that he didn’t know what he was going to do if he stayed there. He slammed Bill’s door shut and it made Bill wince. There was only one thing that Bill was sure of, if he didn’t tell Steffy, then Justin would. This was not the scenario that Bill envisioned when he thought about telling the truth.


	30. Chapter 30

Steffy had a big gala to get ready for, it was one of the biggest common most ridiculous charitable functions of the year. She thought it was one of the most vapid places to be, but it was imperative that Forrester Creations would be represented at this party. The charity was for the arts that just about no one in Los Angeles couldn't partake in unless they would be in this room tonight.

The only consolation prize about this was the fact that Lily B was in town, she was here for business. Since chancellor communications had a West Coast office, she was going to be the representative. It was nice for her to be able to see her friend, Lulu was coming as well, her husband was in charge of a large hedge fund that had offices in LA. It was going to be the three of them back at it again, with even more friends now. Lily’s brother Devon B was coming to. She didn’t know how long it had been since she seen him.

Her life had completely changed, she was close to having her second child. She almost thought herself maybe she shouldn’t have gone to the party, she was supposed to be any day now. She knew that she still was going to be one of the best-looking people there.

It was a professional party, and no one knew about her relationship with Hope yet, no one outside of her best friends and her immediate family. The last thing she wanted to do was bring any kind of scandal to her company, it wasn’t going to look good if her date was the very recent ex-wife of her ex-husband. As much as she would love to stick to Liam, this party wasn’t going to be the one to do it. She would only look petty and immature and it would reflect badly on FC.

People wouldn’t believe the veracity of her relationship with Hope, they would believe that she was bitter in some way. Hope was better and the way that the tabloids write her girlfriend, she seriously had to think about what Hope could handle.

They both decided that it would be best for her to just go solo but together, it was also something for Steffy to keep her professional and personal life separate. Anytime she did interviews she was very guarded about her relationships. She hated being any kind of tabloid fodder, when she and Liam and Hope were in that endless triangle, people went through her grandfather’s garbage. Jack Hamilton is a simple man, paparazzi on hiding in his bushes is staying in the past. She hated being only thought of that. She was reduced to some lovesick woman in love with a man that had a divided heart. She wanted to be seen for the businesswoman she is… They only saw her as an extension of a man who definitely was not worth the fight that she gave him.

Even though Hope had no reason to be in the room, she was going as Carter’s date. Carter was like a cousin to her; this was Marcus’s brother. When Carter first got to LA, he only had Marcus, Hope loved spending time with him. She loved to pick his brain, he was one of the most intelligent people she ever met, and she always felt smarter having conversations with him. Carter became her unofficial cousin in her mind.

Carter told her, where he and Marcus are from, they would be called play cousins. But she was so happy to help her play cousin out, he hated those parties, and thought it would be nice to have someone to share in his misery.

Hope told Steffy that even though they weren’t going together, they would at least still be in the same space and she would love her from afar.

Steffy had called Hope a sap, but she really liked the sweetness. It was one of the reasons that she loved her relationship so much. She likes sweetness, she liked being a priority and someone who is equivocally devoted to her. If she was going to give her all in a relationship, she only expected her partner to give her the same.

Lily thought it was a good idea for them to book a hotel and have professional makeup artists do their makeup there. Steffy had been planning to do her own makeup, but she was not going to pass up the opportunity to have a professional do it.

Even being at 39 weeks, she knew that she looked good. And now she was going to have flawless makeup to go with that. After the makeup artist and hairstylist left, it was just the four ladies. Hope had been lusting after Steffy the whole time, but it wasn’t like she could just jump down her throat while she was getting her makeup done. They had a few kisses that made Luisa and Lily rolled their eyes.

“Y'all think you're really cute huh?” Lu was happy that Steffy and hope were able to figure it out.

“No! I haven’t been cute since 14 boo, I know I’m fine and so is my girl.” Steffy was not going to be tried by anybody, there’s no way in hell she was going to let someone call her cute.

“If your head got any bigger Steffy it would explode.” Lily always love to tease Steffy.

“I happen to think her head is of normal size. It’s a beautiful head.” Hope knew that she sounded ridiculous, but she couldn't stop herself.

“Girl, you don’t have to pretend like her head ain’t big. We already know that you licking the kitty, you don’t have to be a fool for it to.” Luisa had always been slick in the mouth, there was nothing easier than teasing hope.

Hope was crimson, this was not something that she could ever deny, nor did she have any intention to. Steffy’s friends became her friends, she really liked having girlfriends. She loved having the camaraderie and the teasing, it made her laugh, and they always had their back. The ladies talked until it was time for them to go.

Steffy was so happy that she could have her friends there with her. They were able to have their own table together, Carter was there as well, he was like extended family to the Barbers. They shared a kinship through Marcus. Steffy knew that they had always been close, it also meant that Hope was at her table, they just so happened to fix their seats so they could be together.

Justin was also at their table; he loves the fact that Lily and Devon were able to come. This wasn’t his first idea of what a family get together would look like, but he wasn’t going to be mad at the fact. Spencer Publications was paying for him to be there, he was going to drink overpriced champagne and actually eat the food from a world class chef. That was one of the things he never understood about these galas, they had some of the best chefs that came to cook for them but you hardly ever saw anyone eat.

When bill Spencer entered the ballroom, he had both his sons and Katie by his side. There was also other people from Spencer, this after all was a company function. He loved these parties, he loved to schmooze and talk crap. He loved to be seen. He was dollar bill, he walked in like he owned the place.

He felt like he was in good spirits, nothing could get him down. He didn’t know how, but he could spot Steffy as soon as he walked in. He saw her table and saw that Justin was there. For just one second, he felt his face crack.

Justin took a look at Bill; he didn't know how he was friends with such a chump. He was tired of having to collect this man’s bones and bury them in the closet. He was a lawyer, he didn’t wanna be party to any kinds of crimes or hypothetical. Working for Bill sure enough you'd be close to him. After the whole thing with Sally, he almost stepped away from it all. He was too close to the fire and he was not going to get burned. Now he sees Bill at this party and all he could think is Lily’s words going through his head.

His niece went on and on about how Bill was inappropriate and took advantage of her friend. The first thing you should do if someone is drinking is tell them to stop, no Bill kept going. She couldn’t see past that, she didn’t want to see past that. She thought Bill Spencer was trash and his son. This was not something Justin could fight her on. He had long felt that Bill was inappropriate with Steffy. It was an obsession, and it was clearly one-sided because Steffy either grew out of it or she realized she never truly wanted it in the first place... He looked at his niece’s friend and saw that she was happy, she had gone through a lot and she suffered needlessly because of someone he called a friend.

He told Bill that he would have to come clean, but the way that Steffy is acting in the way that Bill is going about himself, he knew that Bill didn’t say a word. He felt himself getting upset.

“Uncle Jus, you good? You look kinda mad, I know that the chicken isn’t as good as Aunt Mamie’s, but it's not that bad.” Devon saw that his uncle was kind of upset at something.

“I’m good Devon, I just been thinking about work, you know it’s always something with work.”

“Well yeah when you work for the devil, that’s what I’ve been telling you. It wouldn’t be like this if you came to work with me and dad. You know that dad would love to have you on board. So would I, but no one could convince you to leave Bill Spencer. I remember when mom was talking about trying to recruit you to be Jabot General Counsel. She was so mad at you; you were going to accept a job and then you backed out. You caused her a really big recruitment bonus.” Devon said as he remembered Drucilla and how she could go on and on and on.

“Yeah Uncle Justin, mom was so mad at you. She didn’t let us hear the end of it for weeks on end. Even when we had our movies of the week, she would pace up and down the living room as we were trying to watch our movies. Dad said ‘just let your mama tire herself out, ‘cause that’s what she does.’ But she was mad.”

Justin laughed a little, that was definitely his cousin. You cross Drucilla Barber and she will never forget it. He remembered his conversation with Neal, even Neil was upset with him, bill had offered him a lot of money to stay. He had taken that offer, but Neil had told him that Jabot was going to match whatever offer he got. Neil told him that he was planning on trying to steal him from Jabot when he started working there so he can come work for Newman Enterprises. Justin at the time didn’t know he was such a hot commodity, he found out that Dru’s bonus was going to be $ $100,000. He would have been mad at him too if he knew that was going to be the bonus.

“You don’t have to tell me, even though your mom didn't show that she was upset with me, that’s a testament to who she was. Your father let me know. He was telling me that she wasn’t going to say anything to my face, but you guys had to live with her. I’m sorry bout that by the way” Justin really was sorry, if he really had a grasp on things and could see into the future, he would have made some different choices.

“That’s okay Uncle Justin, you know how our mom is. She just like to talk. And It didn’t matter what she was talking about, we like to listen. She made everything funny, so it was just a funny chapter.” Lily really missed her mom every single day, missed her even more since she had children now. But her mother was someone who was full of life, and she was definitely the vitality in their house. Her mom was the best gossip in town, she always had a good story waiting for the dinner table every single night. She was always there to make all of them laugh she had a way showing you that nothing is as serious as you make it.

Before Justin could say anything, bill Spencer had come to their table. Nobody said hello to the man, He was no friend to anyone at this table.

“Hey Justin, I was wondering if I could speak with you?” Bill was trying to keep his voice level, he didn't know how much Steffy knew.

“About?” Justin kept cutting into his chicken like he didn’t even see Bill.

Lily and Devon just looked at each other, wondering what was going on.

“It’s Spencer business.”

“Fine.” Justin got up.

Both men walked out of the room, it was a weird sight.

Luisa’s husband Erik had asked her question, he was under the impression that Bill Spencer and Justin Barber were best friends. The air seemed pretty hostile, at least from Justin’s side. He said it in Spanish because he didn’t want to be seen as a gossip. But Steffy understood everything he was saying. It was starting to make her wonder too.

“Did Uncle Justin seem upset to you?” Lily started to ask her brother because she feels weird right now.

“Yeah, he definitely does, but he was kind of upset before. I was trying to make a joke about the food to distract him, but he was really in his head, maybe it’s something related to Spencer.”

Devon was trying to make sense out of it all.

“Yeah but when has he ever been rattled about business, he's always calm about everything. Dad is always saying that he never loses his cool, it cannot be about business Devon. I want to know what the snake did to make our uncle upset.” Lily never hid her hatred for the man.

They started to interest Carter because Lily was right, he has seen Justin in action and the man has never been rattled about business a day in his life. If he’s upset, then it probably doesn’t have to do with anything concerning Spencer Publications.

“I think it’s personal too, I’ve been around Justin a long time and he's always collected, especially in a business setting. He’s even told me that I’ve had to calm down when I don’t like something. I spoke to Marcus today, he didn't mention anything about Justin being upset either. If Marcus felt like Justin was mad then he probably would have asked me to check up on him.”

The mention of Marcus catches Hope’s attention. She had a mutual family member with Lily and Devon too. She text Marcus pretty often and she only got new pictures of Rosie.

“Yeah I spoke with Marcus too, he didn’t make any kind of mention to me about Justin being upset. He probably wouldn’t even tell me that, but he would tell my Aunt Donna. Even though they’re not married anymore, Marcus would definitely tell Donna to check up on Justin if he felt that his dad was upset.” Hope was wondering if she should text Marcus and see. But Marcus was in South Africa and the time zone was completely different. She would probably be disturbing him.

“Marcus would definitely tell me if Justin was somehow upset.” It was all Steffy needed to say, everyone at that table knew that Marcus trust his Steffy with just about everything. Even though they didn’t workout as a couple, they stayed close friends. If Marcus felt that his father was upset, he would have said something to her.

“Well we can't all leave at once, the gala just started and it will attract attention. Devon and I are going to see if we can find our uncle. I’ll get some answers.” Lily got up and went towards the exit. Devon was on her heels.

They started to make their way around the hotel, they didn’t see Justin in the lobby. Lily was about to just say forget it because she couldn't find them, but Devon heard something, it sounded like their uncle’s voice. It was coming from the ballroom next to the one they were just in.

“Did you hear that? I think Justin just said Steffy’s name. Okay this is weird, They are clearly fighting and Steffy’s name comes up. Lily something in the milk ain’t clean with this.” Devin was trying to figure out why is Steffy's name at the center of whatever fight is going on between Bill and his uncle.

Lily did the only thing she could think of, she sent a text to Steffy telling her that whatever is going on has to do with her.

“Devon whatever it is, it can’t be good if Uncle Justin is really upset.” Lily said this nervously, she also didn’t know what to do. If they went into the room, who's to say that they don't shut down the conversation.

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to wait for Steffy to come and then we're going in that room. Whatever it is it seems that it’s Bill that doesn’t want to say what it is and our uncle knows what it is. Whatever it is, Lily we gonna get to the bottom of this tonight.” Devon was promising his sister that this was going to be handled.

Lily looked at her brother and nodded hoping that he was right.


	31. Chapter 31

“Lily just sent me a text saying that Bill and Justin are somehow fighting about me.” Steffy was really confused because what would a fight between Justin and Bill have to do with her?

As soon as Steffy said it, Hope had a horrible feeling. Anything that had to do with Bill and Steffy in the same sentence made her heart race.

“Does she know what they're saying?” Luisa asked because she was very confused as well.

“She's telling me to come.”

“Well I’m going to come with you.” Luisa said she was concerned. Whatever had Justin so upset and related to Steffy in any way was bound to be something horrible.

Hope wanted to come too, but it would look very weird to this whole room if she and Steffy left together.

The table had devised a plan, they were going to leave but they would do it at different times.

The two best friends started walking towards the direction that Lily was.

Lily and Devon looked really concerned, their uncle had been fighting a long time.

“What’s going on?” Steffy wanted some answers because the text was very vague.

“I don’t know much, but whatever they are fighting about has to do with you.” Devon gave her as much information as he had.

“Well if it has to do with me, then I’m going to find out what that is right now...” Steffy started marching towards the doors.

As soon as she opened it, they could all hear that Justin said he quit. He also said if Bill was not going to tell Steffy, he was.

“Whatever it is, you can tell Steffy now. What has Justin so upset that he would quit his role working for you Bill?”

Steffy started her questioning, she and her friends started to roll in.

At the gala, Erik, Carter and Hope started to make their way outside of the room. That attracted the attention of the Spencer table. Liam saw his ex leaving after his other ex just left. He shot up out his seat and started to follow them.

Katie got up and followed him wondering what the hell was he doing. As Liam was flying out of the door, Katie was on his heels.

As soon as she got out of the ballroom, she could see the Hope was with Carter. They were going into the adjacent ballroom.

When the both of them got there, they could see on one side of the room was Bill and Justin, on the other side of the room they could see Steffy, Hope, Carter and some other people.

“Well Bill, what would have Justin quit for you working all these years as your honestly everything. And what does it have to do with me?” Steffy felt herself getting upset, Luisa was holding her hand. It was the only thing that was grounding her in the moment.

Hope was looking back and forth trying to figure out what the heck was going on? Apparently, Justin was quitting his job and it had something to do with Steffy.

“I told you that if you didn’t tell Steffy than I would!” Somewhere deep down, Justin knew that Bill was going to find a way to minimize what he did. He thought about the time that had passed since they had their conversation and now. He didn’t know if Bill was trying to strategize or just try to escape any kind of accountability. At this point he didn’t care; he was just upset.

“Justin, whatever it is it’s apparent that he’s too much of a coward to tell me what is going on… Whatever has to do with me please just tell me?! If it’s something that is making you quit your job and it has to do about me, please I’m begging you to tell me.” Steffy didn't know what kind of news was waiting for her. She didn’t know if Liam was going to try something with her and he had Bill’s support. She wanted to be ready because she didn't trust any of those Spencers.

Justin just folded his hands together. He raised his eyebrows an shifted his neck back to Bill.

“Do you really want me to be the one to say it, do you really want me to be the one to show people who you truly are? She called you a coward and she is right. That’s what you are… a coward.”

Bill didn’t like his character to be challenged, no one in this world could call him a coward. He found himself blurting out what he told Justin before he could stop himself.

“We didn't sleep together. That night you were drinking and complaining about Liam. You had just fallen asleep. I just said that we slept together…”

The amount of audible gasps that filled the room almost felt coordinated... It was almost harmonic.

Liam felt dumbfounded right now.

“You did what?!” Steffy felt her full body shaking, she felt herself grinding the bones in her best friend’s hand.

Lily came to the other side of Steffy.

Steffy felt as if air was leaving her body right now.

“I said it because I thought this was our time, we’ve always had this chemistry and we could have been amazing together. We could have raised your child as mine. It was still my blood and Liam didn’t deserve you. He was always discarding you and making you feel like crap. I was the partner that you needed; I know how to be the partner you deserve…” Bill trying to explain himself. He wanted Steffy to see his rationale.

Katie felt like her heart was breaking, she had forgiven him numerous times, his infidelity was… is something that was pretty much a constant. She thought that she could compete with Brooke, because she knew that on some level that they wouldn't last. But she could never compete with Steffy. He was obsessed with her, she thought when Steffy said that she would never be with Bill that it was okay for Katie to move forward. She thought that she could be a family with Bill and their child. It was one of the only reasons that she kept taking him back. She knew as long as Steffy stayed away that she could have a family with Bill. Her father left their household, and she didn’t want that for Will but this was heartbreaking. Having to hear that Bill gave no regard to their child and even less to her was breaking her borrowed heart.

“You are obsessed with me. I have told you countless times I could not remember that night, I had never blacked out from alcohol before. I’ve never had that happen to me before and it just so happens that you said that I slept with you. I couldn’t even consent if I was blacked out, now could I?” Steffy felt tears running down her cheeks, she wasn’t sad she was downright livid. She felt like breaking every single thing in the room.

Hope hearing Steffy talked that way, started to make her cry here the whole time Steffy was trying to tell her that she couldn’t remember doing anything with Bill, Hope had only seen betrayal. She didn’t even think about the consequences of Steffy not consenting to it, she didn't even think about Steffy not even having the ability to do that. It started hurting her because she was ignoring Steffy trying to make sense of it all, she was realizing that she was being even more selfish in that moment only thinking of herself and her hurt as the woman she loved was trying to wrap her head around an act as she could not remember.

“I only said it so we could have a chance. I knew that you were going to have to get a paternity test because it would have been the only option that you could have had to make sure. I knew that Liam was always going to be the father okay, but I wanted you to see that given the chance that I could be what you needed me to be...” Bill hated that he had to explain himself in front of all of these people, he thought if he could speak to Steffy privately that it would have gone a completely different way.

“No. There’s no way in hell that you’re going to get anyone to believe that. If Steffy could not consent to the act, that would be rape. That never even happened but you allowed her to think that. So there’s only two scenarios in this whole thing. Sex without consent is not sex. You saw that my friend was vulnerable and upset and drinking. You started fabricating history. And you use the fact that she was drunk to get away with it. You thought that you were somehow meant to be together. Even without the manipulation and blowing up her life, she still didn’t want to be with you. You were not going to tell her anything. You made her walk around thinking that things were her fault... What did you think that telling my uncle was going to absolve you? You’re disgusting, you’re despicable. I’ve known Steffy for more than half my life. No one deserves this, least of all Steffy! This is my sister’s best friend, she’s my best friend… She might as well be my sister. This is sick and the fact that you can't recognize that it is… I have absolutely no words.” Devon knew that it wasn’t his place to speak for Steffy, but he couldn't hold this in. He was imagining someone trying to do this to Lily and he lost it.

“This is why our uncle said that he quit. I have always found you to be a vile and empty person. I could never understand why our uncle worked for you. I never understood why he always cleaned up your messes, neither could our parents. This is indefensible… My friend never deserved this. None of you will ever leave her alone?! You try to suck the life out of her, but you don’t know who she is. You don’t realize by now that she will prosper over your treachery. Both of your treachery. Both you and your son are ugly… just rotten. You are a combo of the vilest things. A fucking plague!” Lily tried to hold her tears but she couldn’t.

Liam was still in disbelief; he heard his father tell everyone in this room that he never actually slept with Steffy. Liam threw away his whole marriage on that basis. Now he’s hearing that this wasn’t even true.

“Do not compare me to him, I’m nothing like my father.”

“Who says? You? That’s funny. That’s like saying which is worse arsenic or cyanide?” Steffy let her friend's hand go and got closer to Bill. She saw Liam in her peripheral. “I could never remember that night, I was horrified that you were telling me that I could do such a thing. And it didn’t even exist. Devon is right, I couldn’t consent to an act so you would actually have someone think that they were carrying their or possibly carrying their rapist’s baby who also happens to be their father-in-law?! I was trying to vent, and you took advantage of that. You didn’t care about what I want. You talk about being a partner that I deserve, what I deserve is the truth! What I deserve you can never give me?! You could never be my soul mate. Bill Spencer you have no soul. You gravitate towards anything that has life and try to possess it. You cannot have me, even with all of your scheming and manipulating you still didn’t get me. I hate you… I truly do hate you.” Steffy felt like pounds of pressure was leaving her body. She felt like she was being freed from shackles as she did not even know were there.

“Steffy…” Liam was trying to make sense of everything.

Steffy went up to Liam and punched him dead in his jaw, he fell to the floor in pain. He felt like his whole jaw was burning. Steffy started to step on his neck with her full weight and closed her eyes for a second. It felt beautiful to have her foot on his neck... Bill and Katie were horrified and wanted to step in. Bill made a move to try and get closer to Liam.

“If you get any closer to her, I will break your fucking back. I will show you what it’s like to fight a third-degree black belt in Judo.” Luisa started to step closer to Bill when she saw that he got closer to Steffy.

Erik started to get closer to his wife, he knew that she was a practitioner of multiple martial arts but that was still his wife and he was going to protect her and have her back no matter what.

Steffy stepped off of Liam’s neck, she moved back a little. She was physically repulsed by both of them and the further she was from them the better. She felt such anger in her, she was ready to unleash it all.

“Shut up! You treated me so horribly. Even before this whole the debacle, you treated me horribly, you were always telling me that I was overreacting, and you were just friends with Sally... You gaslight me and emotionally abused me... lied to me over and over. When you say that you’re nothing like your father, it is hollow like what's between your ears. You are not this sensitive an emotionally connected person. You are abusive, you are manipulative and any woman with you will lose her sense of identity, her self-worth and maybe her freaking sanity. I’m so glad that I don’t have to deal with you anymore. You make me sick to my core.” Steffy was so disgusted. She knew what Liam was going to try and do. She knew that he was going to try and make excuses and apologize. She didn’t want to hear it. There is no sorry that could ever make up for the things he said in did to her.

“Steffy, I challenge you and you challenge me too. I understand why you’re upset. I should have been truthful earlier but –” Bill was trying to explain himself further, but he was being interrupted by Steffy herself.

She started stomping on the ground. She kept chanting I hate you Bill Spencer between each stomp. It was so loud; her foot was violently stepping on the wood. She said I hate you Bill Spencer six times.

It made everyone in the room just silent the amount of hatred that was conveyed in the screams... displayed Steffy’s true feelings. You could feel the anger and hurt in the stomps.

Hope was clutching on to Carter crying. Steffy was holding on to a deep pain.

“I hate the both of you, more than I’ve ever had the displeasure of hating someone before. My whole pregnancy… should have been a happy time for me. I was getting to have my miracle child after losing my child. It was high risk and I had one person playing with my life as if it was his oyster. And then I have his son who bullied me my whole pregnancy. Making it his goal to treat me as if I was gum underneath his shoe. I could have lost my child going into labor early. But she made it no thanks to you Liam. But the complications stayed with me. I had so much stress from that pregnancy that it carried over into postpartum. My doctor kept saying keep your stress levels low because you’re not out of the woods. I was only trying to protect myself and my daughter and what do I get? I got some lawsuit from you Liam! I was accused of parental alienation. I don’t decide court dates. That’s the state of California judicial system. But that was somehow my fault, just like everything else that went wrong in your life was somehow my fault. When I received that notice it made my blood pressure spike, I had never felt so mad and helpless since my water broke, I lost consciousness. My whole body fell, and my head cracked on my parents’ tile floor. Only person that was with me was Phoebe and she was taking a nap. If my Aunt Bridget had not been in town, she wouldn't have been able to be the one to find me. I had to be taken to the hospital. If she didn’t find me, by the time my mother or my father got home from work I would have been dead. I had to have brain surgery; my brain was freaking bleeding because you just couldn’t leave me alone... It was never enough for you; you couldn't have your fill of punishment. You just kept going and going and going. I was the one who had to pay for it. Bill you set all of this in motion, your lies did nothing but hurt me in every facet of my life. This is how your words of love and admiration are so false because it only brings detriment to my life. And Liam you were right there, you are right there ready to make me pay this pound of flesh. In order to have forgiveness that I didn’t want. I could have lost my life twice because of your badgering and bullying. You only bring misery to me. You bring death. Of course come it all makes sense now. You are the child of a father with no soul. You are just as empty as he is, the only reason people think different is because you pretend. My father had to clean two liters of my blood off of his floor. A freaking Coke bottle worth of blood, could you imagine having to clean your child's blood off of the floor?! That’s what you bring. The two of you are a perfect pair. I never want you to be around me again.”

Hope was absolutely horrified when Steffy relayed this story. This was something she didn’t even know. She left Carter’s side and went closer to her friends and Steffy. Hope couldn’t stay away at this point. Hope, Lily and Luisa hug Steffy tight.

Steffy started to leave the room come when she got close to the door she turned.

“Justin, thank you for being the only one to realize that I was owed the truth. You believed in it that much that you quit your job for it. You don’t know what that means to me. You have honor and I’m glad that some of it was bestowed upon to me. Without your actions, I would have still been in a dark and still have questions. Thank you for giving me this clarity and believing that I was owed that.” Steffy could not stay in the room anymore; she could not stand the sight of Bill or Liam.

The ladies started to exit with Steffy. But Luisa stayed behind, she wanted to say something to Bill Spencer. She went right into Bill’s face. She wasn’t afraid of this man; she could never be afraid of someone so empty.

“You better watch yourself Bill, you see when she was stomping, she put a hex on you. Do not mess with Macumba.” Steffy didn't really put a hex on Bill, but Luisa wasn’t gonna tell him that. Luisa made a sudden movement like she was going to attack Bill and it made Bill flinch. She knew she had the man spooked.

As Luisa left, so did her husband, Carter and Devon.

Steffy was in no condition to go anywhere. Lily had taken her back to the hotel that she booked where they did their hair and makeup. Steffy knew that she needed to calm down, she couldn’t be in public right now. The first thing she did when she got back to the hotel room was to wash off all the makeup. She knew that she probably looked crazy right now.

She had been screaming and crying, even though she felt so much better now, she could not stop the tears flowing through her. She was still so upset. How could she not be? She was finding out that so many people were manipulating her. She had an ex-husband who felt as if he had this power over her as if it was his right, she was so tired of these Spencers thinking that they should have some kind of say in her life.

Hope was trying to be a beacon of support, but she was crying herself. She felt guilty because she told Liam to withdraw the petition, but it wasn't early enough. Steffy had another health crisis, one that was grave and she should have known that Liam would have done something.

Steffy sat on a bed, just trying to catch her breath. Hope wasn’t sure if Steffy would want her to be so close to her right now, but she ventured to try.

“Honey, I didn’t know about that. I told Liam that I was going to leave him if he didn’t withdraw that petition. As soon as I found out, I made that ultimatum. I wish I knew sooner because if I did then that wouldn’t have happened to you.” Hope wanted Steffy to know that she had nothing to do with the petition, she thought it was going way over the line. After everything with the birth, Hope did not want to push Steffy anymore. She saw how dangerous that was.

“I don’t blame you for Liam’s actions, he did that. He was trying to control me and thank you for trying to help. I didn’t know that you did that, but it means a lot to me that you knew that it was something frivolous and you stood up for me.” It touched Steffy to know that her girlfriend was not party to trying to make her feel worse.

Steffy pulled Hope’s face closer. They kissed and it was something they both needed. For a second they were able to tune out Lily, they acted as if they had no worries in the world, their tongues flowed freely into each other’s mouths. They would have kept going until Lily coughed.

All three of them laughed. There was a knock at the door and when Lily opened it, it was Luisa.

“Nobody better asks me how I’m doing right now. It’s pretty self explanatory how I feel right now... But I don’t wanna think about that right now. I want to be with my best friends and my girlfriend and just have a little bit of fun before you both have to leave me. I just want to order some room service because I’m so freaking hungry, all of this happened right before I started my meal.”

They started ordering food and worried about only the people in that room. They were trying to lighten the mood just to relieve some of Steffy’s anger, it was at the forefront of every single woman in that room that Steffy's pregnancy was high risk.

Steffy wasn’t okay, but she finally felt like she could move on truly.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to release new chapters of some active stories in honor of Megan Thee Stallion's birthday.

Steffy was still reeling from the revelations that came. She felt vindicated in a way, she didn't know how or why but it felt like her heart was lighter. She thought that she moved on from that horrible chapter in her life, but when she was in that room, before the band aid was ripped off, she still felt some of the heaviness from those lies. Every time she looked at Bill, she angered herself. She didn’t know how stupid she could have been, she couldn’t remember how stupid she was. But it didn’t even happen, she had been manipulated yet again.

She found it rich how these men who claim to love her so much always find ways to betray her trust and hurt her over and over again. She realized that she gave them some kind of power over her… She gave them trust and it bit her in the ass.

She gave her time to people who didn't deserve her day, but she moved past that. Even before finding out all of this treachery and despicable behavior, she reshaped her life. She didn’t want to live in the past, she didn’t want to give either of them any more of her time. The less she gave them, the more they wanted it, it wasn’t her problem anymore. She was so happy that she could shield herself from that drama. She wanted to focus on her child, she wanted to do the best by Phoebe and give her all the love she had to give, and she succeeded.

She didn’t let anyone distract her from being the best mother she could, she didn’t let anyone distract her from being the best businesswoman she could be. She was living life on her own terms and she forgot how much she loved that freedom. She missed it; she missed that version of herself. But she was back and better than ever.

The day after everything happened, Liam was trying to get in contact with just about everyone in her life. He didn’t have her number, so he was trying to go through conduits. It didn’t work, she didn't know if he realized it but everyone in her life hated him. They had no urge to help him. If something had to do with Phoebe, then it would have to be done with the courts. They don’t look too favorably to him anyways because he was such an absentee father.

It didn't matter to Steffy how Liam felt, his problems with his father were his problem. She wanted no part of it, and she didn't have to listen to that. She didn’t have to subject herself to that anymore, she used to get so upset at the fact that he threw their marriage away, now she was rejoicing. She dodged so many bullets, the day that she refiled the petition was really the start of her new life.

She left that anger fuel her, that anger led her to wanting to be better in everything she did. She fought for her daughter, she fought for her company, her employees… She wanted to be the best version of herself for people who were counting on her depending on her… that’s why she was not going to get lost in the shuffle of Liam.

As much as he would try to deny it she knew that he wanted her to be broken and waiting, the next time he manufactures his own demise with his next relationship, he would try to pick up where they left off. He was so predictable that it was comical.

The only reason she knew the truth was because the most egotistical man she knew wanted to ease his conscience by telling his friend, he didn’t do it because he wanted to tell the truth or he felt as if it was something that was owed to her. He wanted to be absolved from it by someone who didn’t een have the power for forgiveness. He wanted to confide in Justin his disgusting manipulative actions.

She didn’t know how he could think that someone would want to keep something like that silent, it would make Bill feel happier to not have that on his chest anymore, feel relieved to admit that he was so selfish because he wanted to shift that guilt to someone else.

She spoke to Justin the day after everything happened. He was so honest with her and apologized to her, he felt that he should have done more before any of that happened. He said that his primary reason was actually his niece. Lily was her best friend. He thought of how he would feel if someone did that to her. He thought it was just heinous, he couldn’t imagine watching his niece second guess herself and her decisions all the time. He didn’t think anyone should have to go through that it didn’t have to matter if it was his niece or not. 

Steffy was overcome with emotion, she knew that some of it was just from the hormones coursing within her. It made everything more magnified. Her gratitude was amplified to a degree that she felt couldn't be contained in her heart. Even though it was years later, it meant something to hear those words, it meant something to her to hear that these were lies. It also proves something to her, that Liam chose any little reason as a justification of why he could be abusive, he used any excuse to scream and berate her and make her swallow her pride and throw away her worth.

She was happy to see that Justin was finally moving on from Bill. He finally said he was working with his family. She knew that it made Devon and Lily so happy. She wanted nothing but the best for all of them always and it seems that everyone in that situation who deserved better with actually going to be alright.

Hope had heard from her aunt, Katie was disgusted and appalled. Not just for herself and for Will, but for Steffy too. For so long she would blame Steffy for the shortcomings in her relationship with Bill. She could see for the first time truly how sick Bill was when it came to Steffy.

Katie had been just as disgusted with Liam. For so long she has made justifications of how he can treat Steffy in such a way, she did it as some misguided loyalty for Hope. She realized her mistake and how dangerous her blinders were. How could she allow or approve of someone who treats people like this to be with someone who she loved? She realized her shortcomings as an aunt, cheerleading Hope and Liam as a couple. Doing things that she was not proud of, one of her worst moment was badgering Steffy after her miscarriage.

She didn’t see her behavior as terrible then, it was justified in her opinion. How could she justify giving a woman who just lost her child to somehow reunite Liam and Hope? She didn’t see the links that Liam and Bill went to manipulate Steffy. She could not believe that Bill would make something up like that. He knew the truth the whole time and blew up their life for a lie. She had her own reckoning in that room, she heard things that broke her heart. She knew what it was like to be terrified in a hospital bed, she couldn’t imagine what Ridge and Taylor went through as parents, she couldn’t imagine what Bridget went through finding Steffy's body on the floor with the puddles of blood. It made her sick to think about, it made her heart race.

It was so easy to forget that steffy was someone’s mother and daughter and sister. Being in that room reminded her that Steffy is human and didn't deserve anything Bill or Liam threw her way. Hope thought it was nice for her aunt Katie to say those things to her. She humanized Steffy, she didn’t see her as an enemy to anyone’s happiness, because she wasn’t that. Liam had pitted her and Steffy against each other for so long by design. He would tell them things, say their relationship was so special and how he had nothing but love for them. It was a way to keep them on the hook, keep them waiting in the wings as if they were this grand love story. While he gets to do whatever he likes with little to no accountability for his actions.

She used to hate getting into fights with Steffy over Liam, she fought tooth and nail wondering how Steffy just couldn’t see that Liam and her were destiny, Liam was selling her the same goods.

Hope had asked her aunt to come visit her. She felt that she could be honest with Katie, her aunt could finally see that Steffy wasn't this villain. It was always the Spencers. They were the ones that were trying to pull the puppet strings. They use and discard women at will and it finally caught up to both of them. It caught up to them in that room. For so long people have pretended to really scold them or hold them accountable to something, but it wasn’t real… it was a slap on the wrist only to be hurt again.

Everyone in that room got to see the true essence of how terrible they are and it’s because of that knowledge that Hope felt ready.

“You okay?” Steffy asked her girlfriend, she noticed that Hope was in her head.

“I guess I’m just a little nervous, and maybe even a little scared. I felt like I had a great conversation with my aunt. She seems to really see that she was wrong about so many things. And I’m happy that she does because you're so amazing and I love you so much and I hate that other people got to put this narrative on you. And you were treated so unfairly because of it, it still makes me so sad to know how dangerous that manipulation and lying put you at risk. I’m a part of that… whether I wanna be or not, the truth is I played into that and that hurts so much and I know that you forgave me but honey it still hurts because knowing the magnitude of the damage it shows you how preventable it was.” Even though Hope and Steffy's relationship was completely different, it didn’t erase the past and the real hurt that the love of her life went through.

“Hope, I can only tell you that we can't dwell on the past, we can reflect on it and use it learning lesson come on we can’t love our present and create a future if we're not on the same page. I love you and I understand the guilt that you carry, I carried guilt for the things that I did to you, but I got over it, we are here and that's what matters. I’m not thinking about that because honestly it was only a symptom of the root cause. It was always Liam, he was the underlying factor of a lot of that hurt. He manipulated you and me into doing things that we are not proud of… I’m not trying to say that, so you think I’m giving you a pass, what I’m saying is that manipulation works. We did things to each other because of a man lying to our faces all the time. Liam didn’t love us; Liam loves himself and he has a complex about being alone… Anytime things don’t go his way he gets threatened. It’s not your fault or mine that he’s narcissistic, baby those types of people almost always use manipulation to get what they want. They are emotionally abusive and wear away defenses against that. The best thing that we can do to not let Liam have any kind of hold over us, is to be happy. So that’s what I’m going to do.” Steffy was trying to explain to Hope that the best thing for the both of them is to pay Liam no mind.

“I’m going to do that too, he’s not going to have anymore power over us.”

It was in both of their favors that Liam was a deadbeat, he was trying to use the court to get their attention. It was a recipe for disaster because the judge had requested, he go through a psych eval, he was being tested on his fitness as a parent. 

Steffy was ready to give testimony about everything, but that was something that wouldn't be decided for at least two months with the next court date.

They had been waiting for Katie at one of the restaurants they frequented. They talk some more when Katie came through the door.

When Katie got into the restaurant, she was actually surprised. She knew that Hope and Steffy weren’t on adversarial terms but she didn’t expect them to be here together. She felt her heartbeat quickened looking at Steffy. Some of her own guilt was starting to bubble to the surface.

Nonetheless she marched over to their table, hope gave her a hug.

“I know that it may be surprising for you to see us together. You know that it's important for me to raise Beth with Phoebe. I want her to have a great relationship with her sister. I didn’t have that and it’s something that I don’t want to continue.”

“Okay… I can definitely understand that rationale. I need to say something first. Steffy, I need to apologize to you… For so long I blamed you for so many things and that was really unfair to you. I was shifting the responsibility of the man I was in a relationship with upon you. It took me a long time to come to grips that I was bitter because of Bill's relationship with you. I wanted to make you pay for that, I did so much to help reunite Liam and Hope… Some things that I’m not proud of. I should have never spoken to you when you lost your son. I’m so happy that you’re able to have children because I know that was important to you but in that moment where I knew about your infertility issues and I was more than willing to keep it a secret. But I didn’t do it for altruistic reasons, I did it because it would get in the way of Liam and Hope. I’m not proud of that, I don’t know how anyone could be. If I had been given that news and someone was in my face as I lost my child, I don’t know what I would do. That isn’t right. I didn’t give you your time to grieve, I made it as if your child with some minor inconvenience and I’m sorry because I don’t really believe that and I don’t know how I could justify that at the time. Being in that room hearing all of those horrible things, it was the first time I realized the depth that Bill and Liam went through to manipulate and hurt you. I always made some kind of excuse for it or just didn't believe it. I obviously didn’t know about what happened with Bridget finding you, but I was horrified. I couldn’t imagine what that was like for you or your family. I just want you to know that I’m sorry, I can’t take back what I did coming But I am sorry.” Katie could feel tears running down her face, she just used her fingers too wipe them away. She should have known better but she thought she was helping her family, it sounded like a horrible excuse now. She was smarter woman that, but she didn't act like it for a long time.

“Thank you Katie, it means something for you to say that to me. I apologize for any of the hurt that I gave you. I honestly wasn't thinking about you when I was pursuing Bill. It honestly didn’t have to do much with him either, I was looking at anyway too help get my family’s company back.” Steffy was young and dumb and right out of Business School. 

She just wanted to prove to her family that she was ready to get back FC at all costs.

Katie just nodded; she knew just how important Forrester Creations was to just about every Forrester.

“I’m glad that you were able to apologize to Steffy. It’s really important to me, it’s important for my relationship with her. It’s one can only have trust.”

Katie listened to her niece’s words, she knew that in order for them to have a good relationship for Phoebe and Beth that Steffy and Hope had to be able to trust each other.

“I know, you have to establish a foundation so you can do the best by your daughters.” Katie was doing her best to be understanding. It really wasn’t hard, and she was going to do what she could to help support Hope.

“Yes it is good for Phoebe and Beth, but it’s also good for me and Steffy. So I didn’t only ask you to come because I knew you would have been inclined to apologize to Steffy. I also called you because I wanted to tell you something. You’re important to me… Because of that I wanted to tell you that Steffy and I are together.” Hope didn’t know how Katie was going to react. Her aunt Donna and Bridget knew just about everything and they were OK with it.

The last thing for Katie to expect was Hope telling her that she was with Steffy, she didn’t even have an inclination that Hope was interested in women. She hoped the look of shock on her face didn't make either of them uncomfortable.

“Oh wow… I really had no clue. I guess congratulations are in order, it’s very unexpected but you two seem happy.”

Hope is happy to have her aunt Katie support, it meant something to her. It was nice to have her family approve of a relationship that made her so happy. They approved of Liam and it was her kryptonite, it would only hurt her and she hoped that they would lend their support to this as much as they did to her.

“We really are… we have a lot to look forward to, we’re having another child and we're going to get married. I have wanted this for so long and I’m finally having the life that I want.” Hope was being honest; this was not something that she did often with her family. She always used to say what she thought people wanted to hear, but now she really didn't care to satisfy other minds anymore. She saw how unhappy that made her and she wanted things to change.

“You said that you wanted this for a long time but you haven’t been divorced from Liam long and I’m guessing this is rather new development…”

“Actually, I’ve been in love with Steffy for years.”

“Excuse me what? I truly do not get this right now.”

“After I lost my son, you know that I left. I was aimlessly going through Italy and I happened to be in a café in Rome and I was incredibly surprised when I saw Steffy walking through the door. She was so kind to me about me losing my son, it was honestly surprising because I didn’t give her the same… Not truly at the time. We spent time together and I loved every minute of it. I realized that I had feelings for her. I fell in love in a way I never was before. My other relationships don’t even compare. Steffy got a job offer that she really could not refuse, but I wasn’t ready to come back here. So we parted. My divorce from Liam was a blessing… in disguise. Anyways so that’s pretty much everything I wanted to tell you. Are you okay with this… really?”

“Yeah Hope, I’m happy that you could find someone who really makes you happy. I honestly didn’t expect it to be Steffy, for so long I’ve only thought of you as rivals for Liam’s heart.” Katie was being honest; she didn’t see this coming.

“Well most of our relationship was literally overseas. I only thought of us as rivals of Liam’s heart to. Our relationship was a surprise to the both of us, but it’s one that both of us cherish and we plan on making it forever.” Steffy was pretty much silent the whole time but she chimed in when it really mattered.

“Yeah, we are.”

Katie couldn’t help us smile seeing that both of them looked happy. Steffy was probably going to give birth any day now.

“Am I the first person you told?”

“No, aunt Donna and Bridget knew, and most of Steffy's family knows.”

Katie was not surprised that her sister knew.

“Does your mother know?” Katie just wanted to be fully cognizant. She didn’t have much of relationship with Brooke, but she didn’t want to unknowingly give her information that she shouldn’t be Privy to before hope is comfortable telling her.

“No… I also don’t know if I want to tell her. I don’t know if I want her in my life... I would appreciate if you didn’t say anything.” Hope really didn't want to hear anymore about her mother at the moment. She didn’t want anything to taint this moment. “Anyways enough talk about Brooke, we came to have a lunch so let's do that.”

Katie was surprised but not surprised that she was having a good time with them. It was easy for her to see that her niece was in love, she didn’t remember ever seeing Hope looks so carefree about everything. With her relationships with Liam and Wyatt, it always seemed as if she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. All she saw was smiling faces and obnoxious laughter.

They were happiness well and she was happy to be able to witness it.


	33. Chapter 33

Steffy was trying to take it easy, she was in the last stretch of her pregnancy. She felt overcome with emotions. She was still trying to process everything, but she felt in a better headspace.

She felt as if Hope was in a better headspace too, she was able to be truthful with her aunt about their relationship. it was nice to see Hope in a more carefree way. She knew that Hope still had her hang ups and insecurities, but she was working through them. And made her so proud of her fiancée. She couldn’t believe that she was saying that Hope was her fiancée. It was still surreal; they were living together.

It was becoming a more difficult task to do just about everything. She was so pregnant, and it sapped a lot of her energy. It wasn’t to say that she was always lethargic, she was just used to her high levels of energy. It was weird for her to be sitting down all the time. She was always and so the day seemed so long now.

“What are you thinking about?” Hope had looked to her side and saw that Steffy was quiet and contemplative.

“I’m just thinking about how much less energy I have now. I’m just so used to bouncing around and it's just a waiting game now. I feel like I’m all over the place and I can’t really channel myself, but I also don’t have as much energy as I’m used to so it's just weird. This was the one part of pregnancy I do not like.”

“I get it. You’re always so used to doing 100 things at once. It would always drive me crazy how productive you could be, it was like you were a machine. It’s like your body is telling you that it wants to work, and your body is also telling you that it's not possible at the moment.” Hope has seen Steffy in action. She knows how her mind works.

“Yeah, it’s kind of like that. It makes me want other things. I can’t do what I’m used to, and I’m banned from working. It just gets on my nerves because they’re still 24 hours in the day and I’m doing substantially less than I’m used to. I feel like I should get a grandfather clock just so I can stare at it all day.” Steffy was just so bored of being bored.

“Well what other things do you want? Obviously, you won’t get to work because even if I could… Your dad would kill me. I’m just happy to be on good terms with your parents again so I can’t risk that. I still love you though.” Hope was absolutely serious, she knew that she wasn’t going to get any more chances from Steffy's parents. She fucked up twice, she wasn’t going to get a third chance to mess things up. There was too much skin in the game because kids were involved this time.

“Well… You know that how the hormones get me. All the time I just want to fuck.”

Hope had her work cut out for her, Steffy had not been joking when she said that she had needs to be fulfilled. She would be woken up in the middle of the night by a horny Steffy. She didn’t know how many times she was eating pussy half asleep or finger fucking her girlfriend till she came.

“Well, the girls are taking a nap. We do have time to burn.” Hope was actually awake, she loved to play with Steffy's body. She loved the sounds that she could bring out her girlfriend.

It was more than an ego thing. She was in love and there was something about having sex with someone you are in love with that was different then just having sex.

Steffy didn’t wait for anymore talk, she got up and went to the bedroom.

She got on the bed and laid on her side, it was one of the only comfortable positions she could get in…

Hope had followed Steffy into the room, she wanted to know exactly what to do. Steffy could be crabby so she didn't want to exacerbate that.

“What did you want exactly?” Hope needed to know how to please, there is nothing worse than an upset pregnant woman.

“Get a good dildo And A vibrator.” Steffy had some wicked thoughts going through her mind.

Hope went into their special box and chose one of her favorite toys. She also got the vibrating egg that Steffy liked so much.

Hope made sure to cleanse them before they use them, she was paranoid most of the time, but it was higher now with Steffy being pregnant, she would feel too guilty if she got some kind of infection due to carelessness.

She got on the bed wondering what they were going to do.

“Take off your panties.” Steffy was demanding at this point. She was impatient and this was one of the only ways to mitigate it.

Hope hurriedly took off her underwear, she liked it when Steffy was bossy. It always meant that she was gonna have a really good orgasm.

Steffy told her to get the lube from the night stand.

“Put some on your fingers and fuck yourself.” Steffy just propped her head on her hand as she was Hope’s shock.

Hope did as she was asked and slipped a couple of fingers in her. She closed her eyes, but she felt Steffy’s stare heavy on her. It only turned her on more. Steffy was studying her, she was the focus in that moment.

That kind of feeling made her lightheaded, made her feel like she was floating.

“Fuck yourself harder.” Steffy wasn’t going to make it easy.

Hope acted like she wanted it gentle, but she knew better. Hope liked it nasty and rough… That’s what she was going to ensure.

Hope started to roll her hips and fuck herself harder. She kept her eyes closed and bit her lip.

Steffy was smiling, but she wanted more.

She dipped her head and took Hope’s nipple into her mouth. She sucked and nibbled on it. She had no plans to let go. She pinched the other, the action made Hope’s eyes retract open.

Steffy’s tongue was flicking her nipple like she would her clit made her climax. All the stimulation was going through her body made it so easy to give in.

She started keening and mewling like a cat in heat. Even as she stopped fingering herself, Steffy was still taking her time with Hope’s breast.

She finally let go and stared hard.

“How do you feel?”

The intensity of Steffy’s question in her eyes made Hope gasp. She always felt like Steffy was akin to a Black Widow and she was stuck in the web. 

“So good.” It was the only thing that Hope could say.

Steffy had put her hand on Hope’s vagina and it was hard for Hope to have cognizant thoughts.

Steffy started massaging Hope’s mound leisurely.

“You know what I love? You’re such a slut for this. It doesn’t take much, you’re so receptive. You practically scream out for someone to pound that pussy don’t you?” Steffy knew that she was being slightly taunting, but this was something that Hope loved. Craved even.

“Yes, I love for my pussy to be pounded, I love it when you fuck me. I dream about it, every fucking night I dream about it. It’s not enough to just fuck while we’re awake, I do it in my dreams too ‘cause I can’t get enough. Even when my pussy is sore I still want you to fuck me. I dream about eating your pussy. I think about it all the time when I’m awake. I can’t get enough of you. I love you.” Hope didn't hold back from what she was feeling, she knew that Steffy wouldn't accept anything less then her everything.

“You can eat my pussy later. Right now and we need to get that dildo, and get some Lube on it and put it in that beautiful cunt. I want you to fuck yourself with it.” Steffy wanted to collect Hope’s moans, it was something that she wanted in that moment, it was something that turned her on immensely.

Hope just bit her lip and nodded, she lied on her back and kept her body as open as she could. She slid the dildo into her, she felt the head of it first and it made her roll her eyes. There was always something about the first time is slides in that made her crazy.

“That's it baby. I know you like that, go ahead and slip some more in.” Steffy was right in Hope’s ear encouraging her.

She picked up the egg and turned it on, as Hope was getting lost in the rhythm of her fucking herself, she didn’t even notice that Steffy was bringing the egg to her clit.

When Steffy started massaging Hope’s clitoris, Hope couldn't hold back anymore… the moans were escaping her like an avalanche.

“Oh my God, Oh my God… fuck…mmm!”

“That’s it baby, surrender to the feeling. Do you wanna come?” Steffy just kept rubbing the egg on Hope’s clit.

She knew the sensation was getting overwhelming because Hope was a mess.

“Yes, I wanna come.”

“Then do it. Come for me baby.”

Hope was starting to shake; she stuffed the dildo into her three more times and she was coming. She was coming hard and fast, it felt like a tidal wave.

Steffy knew that Hope was going through an intense orgasm, she immediately took the egg off.

Hope felt like she could feel colors.

“Hope…”

“After an orgasm like that, I’m gonna have to eat that pussy out for at least an hour.” Hope was going to have so much fun; it was her favorite thing to do. She could lick and suck Steffy for hours and never get tired. Her tongue had endurance.

“As much as I would love that. That’s not going to be possible.”

“Honey, it'll be fine, I can just eat you out with you on your side, I don’t mind your leg resting on my head, I’ve done that before.” Hope wasn’t getting why Steffy was turning down oral sex. She hardly ever turns down sex.

“It’s not possible because my water broke. We need to get to the hospital.” Steffy got out of the bed pretty easily.

Now that she knew what kind of pain to expect, she didn't overwhelm herself.

Hope was still trying to process what Steffy just said. When her mind started to work again after the haze of her orgasm cleared, she jumped out of bed. She realized that she was bare naked and had to find some clothes.

“After you put on your clothes, get my to go bag. I’m going to go get the girls and put them in their car seats. You’re obviously going to have to drive.”

Hope just nodded dumbfounded. she was getting ready as fast as she could. They were having another child and it was exciting.

They got everything that they needed and got in the car. Even though Steffy was feeling contractions, they hurt less than the last time she was pregnant. She believed that they hurt less because she wasn’t freaked out this time. Usually stress exacerbates pain, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling, but she could handle it.

As Hope drove them to the hospital, she was calling her parents letting them know that she was going to give birth.

When they got to the hospital, Steffy was immediately brought to the suite that she had reserved.

Taylor and Ridge had gotten to the hospital in record time. As soon as Steffy started uttering the words hospital, Taylor was screaming at Ridge to get the keys.

Steffy's contractions came in at lightning speed, Taylor knew that the baby was coming at any moment. The birthing team came and Steffy had given birth in under 20 minutes. It was much faster than last time. It was pretty common the more children you had, the less time it takes for you to deliver.

Steffy thought her new daughter was perfect, she had her little red cap on her head. As she fed her daughter, her parents and Hope were crying… these were happy tears.

“Have you decided on a name for the baby?” Taylor was anxious, she knew that Steffy had a couple of names, but her daughter couldn't decide what she liked the most.

“I decided that her name should be Sofia Sharon Hamilton Forester.” Steffi was happy to give her daughter that name. It kept up with the theme of Greek names that Phoebe had and it was away too honor her grandmother.

Taylor cried, it was more then she could ever ask for, even though she didn't.

Taylor just give Steffy so many kisses on the forehead in thanks.

“Minha amor… brigada…” **(My love, thank you )**

Stephanie just nodded her head, she was tired. She was so tired, but she didn’t want to let go of her daughter.

Hope didn't know what Taylor said, but she knew that she was grateful. She knew that Steffy’s grandmother’s name was Sharon. It was a lovely gesture.

They all talked for some time, Steffy had asked her parents if they could watch the girls.

It was no problem for Ridge and Taylor to look after them. After saying their goodbyes, it was just Steffy and Hope with the little baby.

“Do you wanna hold a baby?” Steffy asked in a quiet tone.

Hope didn’t trust her voice, she just nodded.

She was holding Steffy’s child, she was holding their child. She cried because she couldn’t think of a more perfect moment. This was their baby…

“She's so beautiful, Sofia… She’s so perfect Steffy.”

A nurse had come into the room, telling them that they had to do some observations for the baby. It was routine.

Steffy allowed it, the nurse had done her observations in the same room. She placed the baby in the little cot that they had for newborns.

Hope was going to take Sofia out of the little bed, but she saw the baby was sleeping.

“Hope leave her, come to me please.” Steffy had padded the empty spot in the hospital bed.

It was a tight fit but they made it work. Steffy started kissing her, it wasn’t chaste, she felt such euphoric feelings with the birth of Sofia. she kissed Hope with everything, they took their time, they weren’t going anywhere.

She explored her lover's mouth. Used her tongue to play with Hope’s.

After a couple minutes they broke apart and looked at each other and smiled.

“I’m so happy.” it was the only feeling Steffy felt at the moment.

“Me too. I love us.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty fucking hot.”

They both laughed at Steffy’s comment. Things were looking up for them. They could think of no better way for this day to have ended up.


	34. Chapter 34

Brooke was done with this. She was on a hunt. She was tired of Hope giving her the runaround. This was not the life she expected for her daughter, Hope was supposed to be with Liam.

She thought if she gave her daughter some space, that it would be what she needed to get her head right. She actually let the divorce go through and it had been months. She just couldn’t believe it; Hope was acting as if her marriage meant nothing.

She was tired of waiting for her daughter to come to her. Brooke thought that Hope was going to stop being foolish. She had allowed for Hope to move in with Donna, but she didn't think that Hope was going to just stay there.

She was expecting for Hope to come back to the cabin and for life to return to normal. She knew that Liam made a mistake, but she wasn’t going to let Hope to make a bigger one. She was letting her family go without even a fight.

And now she finds out that Steffy and Hope are somehow friends?! Brooke knew there was more to the story than that. No wonder Hope didn’t think about getting back together with Liam… Steffy was filling her daughter with lies.

She didn’t know what Steffy’s plan was…But whatever it was she didn’t like it. She didn’t understand how Hope could believe anything Steffy said. Steffy was trying to ruin Liam and Hope, and it was working.

She didn’t know what Steffy had said to convince Hope that throwing away her marriage was a good thing. She had to deal with Liam coming and asking her about Hope. The truth was she had no answers about Hope. Her daughter barely returned her phone calls, she left her endless text that went unanswered. This was Steffy’s influence on her daughter.

It was the same kind of influence that Stephanie and Taylor had over Bridget. Steffy was playing with her daughter and she wasn't going to allow it. She decided enough was enough. Every time she went to Donna’s house, Hope happened to be out...

Brooke couldn’t believe that Donna was entertaining this… Her sister kept telling her that Hope would talk to her when she was ready. She tried to listen; Brooke really tried but this was trying her patience. It seemed as if she was going to have to wait an eternity to get in touch with her daughter.

“Hope, you cannot avoid me forever. I will camp out at Donna's house if need be...” Brooke was talking to herself. She was trying to psych herself up for the conversation she needed to have with her daughter.

She was driving over to Donna’s. If her sister told her one more time that Hope was not there, she was going to erupt, she couldn’t believe that Donna was letting this occur. She didn’t appreciate her sister trying to nose her way into her business. She was helping her daughter avoid her. That was unacceptable.

Brooke had seen multiple cars in Donna's driveway. She didn’t know that Donna was entertaining anyone, and she felt offended that she wasn't invited.

She saw Katie’s car and that only made her more upset, she felt as if Donna was choosing sides. Brooke knew that she and Katie still had issues, but it was not fair for Donna to choose one sister over the other.

Broke out of her car and marched up to Donna’s front door and knocked.

Donna wasn’t expecting anyone else, when she decided to have this get together, it was impromptu. She didn’t expect Steffy to give birth so quickly. It had been a month since then. Taylor had been telling her that it was probably the shortest birth that she ever seen, even compared to her time is an intern doing her obstetrics rotation.

Taylor had told Donna that Ridge decided not to come, he decided that it would be pertinent to work and he really didn't feel like being in a room subjected to the constant ooh and ah that was guaranteed to happen with the new baby.

Donna went to the door ready to tease Ridge, when she opened the door it wasn’t Ridge behind it, it was Brooke.

“I didn’t know you were having a party sis; my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.” Brooke rushed in before Donna could push her out.

To say that she was shocked, would have been an understatement. She saw her sister and Taylor talking to each other, but even more egregious was Steffy and Hope. She saw that there was a new baby.

She knew that Steffy was pregnant. It was one of the things that unraveled Hope’s marriage. Liam told her that it wasn't his baby and Brooke was livid. Of course Steffy was using this child to separate her daughter from Liam. She knew that Steffy would have gotten mad with herself that she let Liam go. She didn't know the lengths that Steffy would go through to make it happen.

“So all of you are gathered to celebrate this whore's new child?” Brooke felt everyone staring at her. “Oh am I supposed to say that she isn’t a slut, she used her baby to break up Hope and Liam. And now she is buddy buddy with my daughter trying to trick her, Hope don’t you see, she’s using you.” Brooke felt great, she was going to make Hope see today that Steffy did not have her best interest… they were not friends…

“Call my daughter a derogatory name again. I’ll make sure that you need medical attention.” Taylor was not going to allow an uninvited guest to come and treat her daughter disrespectfully.

“I’m not taking back my words; your daughter is a slut and she tried to use her slutty self to insert herself into my daughter's marriage and made it explode.” Brooke felt no shame in saying so.

“You would know all about that wouldn't you?! You have the most experience here! How did that turn out for you? None of your kids like you, neither one of your sisters like you… none of your supposed destinies are with you…” Katie felt like unleashing. She didn’t know where her sister got off. It was amusing to her.

Brooke did not expect Katie to talk to her like that, and she didn’t expect Katie to stick up for Steffy in any way.

“Katie, how could you say that? Steffy has done things to you too; did you forget what she did with Bill?” Brooke was trying to get the upper hand. She was trying to make Katie see that they didn’t need to be adversaries, they were sisters and they needed to stick together against people like Taylor and Steffy.

Donna and Taylor decided to take the children out of the room, they knew whatever Brooke was going to do was going to upset the kids.

“No, I didn’t forget, I also didn’t forget will you did with Bill. See the difference between you and Steffy is I don’t need loyalty from Steffy, she doesn’t owe me any of that. However what I did expect from you was for you to be a sister... But no, you want us to be loyal to you while you screw us over! For so long, I used to cheer you on in your quest to get back Ridge or Thorne. I used to think that Macy and Taylor were wrong. I used to think that they were wrong because you told me that you were in love and you had to fight for it. I was so stupid then. You don’t look at the destruction that you cause. I could not see it until you did it to me. I feel terrible for pretending that their feelings didn't matter. It drove Macy to drinking herself into stupors, she had so relapses because of you messing with her relationship... her stability. You made me believe that Taylor was taking you away from Ridge, never mind the fact that, he loves her… he has three children with her. They have a life together. I made so many excuses for you. But then you started doing the inexcusable. You destroyed Bridget… You offer these apologies that do nothing because you do it again. Men become exponentially more desirable to you when they are with other women. It’s how you work, you did it to me twice, you did it to your daughter twice. You have no loyalty; your word means nothing. It’s as worthless as you are. So no matter what Steffy did or did not do to me, it pales in comparison of what you did to me. And now you come here to insult people?! That’s not going to fly today.”

“I apologized to you a million times, I’m not proud of what I did with Bill, but I can’t take it back. But you’re with Bill now, everything worked out for the best. But Hope should be with Liam and Steffy is the reason that she isn’t.”

Katie didn’t tell Brooke that she wasn’t with Bill anymore. It wasn’t her sister’s business, if Brooke was going to try and be with Bill again, it wasn’t going to be because of her.

“I don’t want to be with Liam. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that, but I am not going to get back together with him! All he does is betray, and I’m not going to have you, or anyone tell me that I have to accept that!” Hope was starting to get loud, she needed her point to get across.

“Hope, I did not tell you that you had to accept it, I told you that you should work it out, Liam made a mistake, and he is sorry about that. How many times does he or I have to tell you that? She wants you to stay broken up with him, how can you not see that? She planted that lie. She wanted to destroy your marriage and now your friends with her?!”

“Liam destroyed our marriage. Not Steffy, Liam did that. It’s not my fault that Liam is insecure and uses any excuse to bail on his marriage. That’s his problem not mine. I took a stand and said I wasn’t going to deal with that anymore. And for you to come and try and defend him shows me that you do not have my best interest at heart. Liam could do anything he liked, and you would be there to say just forgive him and move on. I am not a stepford wife, I don’t want to be. I’m not going to go through my life wondering how much betrayal I need to take before I get a brain. And I’m not going to have you tell me how to live my life I’m an adult. I make my own decisions.” Hope was starting to get riled up because her mom wanted her to play the role of the fool. Brooke didn’t care what Liam did, everything was forgivable in her book.

She knew what her mother wanted; Brooke wanted her to be with Liam because it meant that Liam wouldn’t be with Steffy. It was really just some poor attempt to live vicariously through her. She couldn’t have Ridge, so of course she wants to stick it to Taylor’s kid.

“I know that you’re an adult Hope, I know that you can make your own decisions, I just don’t want them to be influenced by someone who does not have your best interests at heart. I love you; I love my granddaughter and I think it’s fair that you should be with Liam. You deserve to have the life that you two fought so hard for. Why would you let her ruin that?” Brooke just wanted so badly to go over to Steffy and slap her.

“Steffy didn't ruin anything, in fact she liberated me from my marriage. Gave me an excuse to leave. I wanted to leave before but I was thinking about everyone else. I wasn’t thinking about what made me happy. No I was just giving in to expectations. But I was glad that Liam does what he does because him stepping out on our marriage gave me the courage to do what I couldn’t do before. I loved him because I wanted to leave him not because of anything else.”

“You can’t dictate Hope’s life, it's really sad that you think that you could do that. You over invest in that relationship because of your failings to Bridget. Bridget hates you and try to keep Hope so close that you suffocate her.” Steffy couldn't keep her mouth shut, she was not going to have Brooke tell her anything. This woman is not liked by anyone in this house.

“Don't you dare talk about my daughters. I don’t suffocate Hope, I love her and want to protect her.”

“No you want to run her. You created a codependent relationship with her. The more that Bridget pushed you away, the closer you kept Hope. You try to control her, she just told you that she doesn’t want to be with Liam and the first inclination that you have is to push her back with someone who constantly hurts her.”

“He only hurts her because that’s what you do, you’re always in his ear.”

“That is most certainly not true. Liam came to me, not the other way around. do you listen to yourself, it’s my fault that Liam is a cheater? No stop taking the onus off of Liam! You let him escape accountability for hurting your daughter, don't you see that's why she doesn't want to be with him. You have these blinders on about who Liam is, he’s his father’s son, he’s a liar and a cheat. He’s consistent, he has no regard for anyone by himself. When he thought Hope was cheating on him, he came to me and was ranting and raving, he cooked it up in his head that she was cheating on him… He wanted her to be cheating on him so he could excuse himself. He wanted not only to cheat on her, but to feel that he had some moral high ground to do so. That’s how fucked up Liam is. You choose to not see that, how many times does he need to cheat on her before you realize that he’s not it?” Steffy wasn’t holding back at this point; she had no reason to. Brooke was living in delusion and she was trying to at least have hope that this woman could wake up.


	35. Chapter 35

“If that’s true, why would you give in and sleep with him then?”

“That’s easy, I wanted my revenge. I have no qualms, I wanted Liam to hurt. I wanted him to lose everything. He treated me as if I was garbage, that was before he even cheated on me. I wanted him to feel helpless, he could not change Hope’s mind. I didn’t want her to change her mind about being with him. I want his ass miserable. It’s what he fucking deserves. He pits women against each other, it is not fair to go through an emotional Hunger Games for anyone, let alone someone who we’ll put you through the wringer.”

“Liam is not like that, he’s not like that with Hope. He loves her, and you would do anything to destroy that. You always have.”

“The hell he doesn’t, he's always trying to manipulate me. He cheated on me and the first thing that he did was try to bring up Beth. He tried to use my daughter as a human shield. He tried to use my daughter against me. He didn’t want me to leave so he played up on my insecurities, he played on the fact that I didn’t have my dad in my life to try and hold our family together. That’s despicable. He played upon my emotions and used my real hang ups to try and excuse what he did to me. It’s okay as long as we’re together because we need to be together for Beth. You would rather me be miserable with him, as some way for you to have a victory in your deluded head. He makes me miserable; I’ve told you that so many times and every single time you tell me that he is changed, yes Liam has changed he only gets worse with time. I said enough is enough.”

“You can go to counseling, why do you need to throw your marriage away? I’m not doing it as a way for Steffy to somehow not win. You have loved him for so long.”

“The fuck I do. I’m not in love with Liam. I’m in love with Steffy. I’m with Steffy. That’s who I share my life with, that’s who makes me happy. And I’m not going back to Liam, so get that through your head.” Hope realize she didn’t care about keeping this from her mother anymore.

Brooke thought she heard wrong, she could have sworn that her daughter told her that she was in a relationship… a romantic one with Steffy.

But when she looked, she saw their hands intertwined and Steffy with a smug look on her face.

“You cannot be serious. You are not with Steffy. Hope…” Brooke was starting to laugh, it was unbelievable.

“I don’t know why you’re laughing, I’m serious, as serious as a heart attack. I’m in love with Steffy, you can ask Aunt Katie and you can ask aunt Donna.”

Brooke looks towards Katie; she saw that her sister had a big grin on her face.

“You and Donna knew about this and you didn’t tell me?” Brooke was livid, she did not understand how her sisters could keep a secret from her.

“First of all, we don’t have a good relationship and second I would never out Hope. She wanted to be the one to tell you not me. I don’t think you deserve anything from her.” Katie was happy that this bomb dropped, she felt that Brooke might have a stroke from the news.

“This is a joke, Hope you’re not even gay.”

“Yeah, I’m not gay, I’m bisexual. Pretty much Steffysexual she’s the only person that I want... She’s the only person I want to be with.”

“No. Liam is the love of your life. You’ve been together for years and now you're telling me that what now you are in love with Steffy?!” Brooke still couldn’t comprehend what her daughter was saying.

“No, he isn't. Steffy is the love of my life. She always has been. What we have isn’t new... My time in Europe, I was eating her pussy every single night and I loved it. I can’t get enough of it.” Hope knew she was being crass, but she was enjoying this. She enjoyed making her mother squirm.

Brooke scrunched up her nose.

“What have you done to my daughter? She would never do that.”

“No she would, and she does, she's pretty insatiable.” Steffy enjoyed getting under Brooke skin.

“You're disgusting. That’s not funny.”

“It's not a joke. It’s a fact, I… Love… Eating… Steffy's… Pussy… It’s my favorite thing to do. Sometimes I do it for hours., sometimes I wake up with a sore jaw and I want to do it again. I love making her come… I can’t get enough of it.” Hope started laughing, she was dead serious, but she was enjoying how uncomfortable her mother was.

“Steffy, your game is sick, you are trying to take advantage of her. I don’t know how you got her to do what you say, but you should be disgusted with yourself. I don’t accept this.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you accept, if you don't accept this fact, you’re a novel because you’re living in fiction. Big deal, Hope likes eating my pussy, she loves being with me. You should be happy that your daughter is in love.” Steffy didn’t care if Brooke accepted them, but in some recess of Hope’s mind, she knew that her fiancée might.

“I don’t accept this relationship. I believe it’s fraudulent, you are taking advantage of my daughter.”

“So you're homophobic?” Katie wanted to see her sister's reaction to her words.

“I am far from homophobic, I’m an ally okay. I just don’t accept Steffy. Hope can be with anyone else just not her.”

“Tough luck, because I’m not leaving Steffy. We’re going to get married. I didn’t want you in my life before, I want you even less now.” Hope was serious, she didn’t feel freedom if her mother was in her life. They had a bad codependent relationship that she had to seek therapy for, it contributed to her anxiety disorder. She wanted that stress out of her life. She finally had the strength to say no more to it.

“You don't mean that Hope, I’m your mother.”

“You’re my jailer. You want me to live in the cabin, it’s an illusion to freedom. You want me to live on your property and you make the cabin seem as if it's mine but it's not, it’s a leash. It’s a place that you can come and go anytime you like. It was never mine and I don’t need it to be, I don’t want it to be. Steffy is right, I’m your do over daughter, the good thing about Bridget letting me in her life, was I got to know the real you. The Brooke that you hide from me, it helped me see the signs, I used to ignore it before. I was ignorant to it before. You manipulate me too, and I used to think that it came from love, it came from the fact that you keep me so close to the vest, Bridget helped me see, I’m not a person to you. I am your guilt, I’m a walking reminder of the relationship you cannot have with Bridget. But I don’t care about that. I let that go… because I let you go and I’m not looking back. I am going to be like all of my siblings and cut you out. I don’t want you in my life, I don’t want you in my kid’s life. Why would I? I’m in the happiest space of my life and it’s because you're not there and I don’t think about you. Anytime I do think about you it makes me panic, I don’t feel like myself. And I don’t want that for myself and I refused to let myself be guilted by that anymore. I’m breaking the cycle. I’m having the life that I choose, not the one that you choose for me. And I’m happier for it. The great thing about being an adult is that I get to choose who I want to be near me. I don’t care if you don’t accept my relationship. I don’t need you to. And the thing about it is, if I told Steffy that I wanted you in my life, she wouldn’t give me an ultimatum, she would try for me. But that’s the thing I don’t want her to, I don’t want her to have to deal with snide remarks, backhanded compliments, your attitude. You hate her because she reminds you of what you lost. And why would I subject the person I love more than anything in the world to you.” Hope wasn’t really trying to hurt Brooke; she was just being honest. She was being honest with how she feels.

“That isn't true, I love you. You think that she loves you? She is using you and you are too naive to see it. She took advantage of you and that's not right and I won’t stand for it.”

“Then you're going to need to sit down. I don’t care what you believe, I don’t need to go running to Hope, she's where she wants to be and that’s my bed, that’s in my life. We are together, we are in a committed relationship and have children together. Get over yourself. Stop saying that Hope is naïve, she grew out of that along time ago. She’s a grown woman who makes her own choices. I don’t make choices for her. She’s in charge of her own life and that life happens to include me. Now I’m gonna go check on my kids.”

Steffy let go of Hope’s hand but not before she kissed her. And she made that kiss anything but subtle. She put her tongue in Hope’s mouth and made Brooke watch. She had no problem desecrating the idea of what Hope was in Brooke’s mind. She was going to make Brooke see was that Hope was hers and Hope had no desire for Liam.

Brooke was absolutely shocked seeing Hope be kissed by Steffy. She felt frozen.

Steffy pulled away from the kiss, which only made Hope lean forward. Steffy popped two kisses on Hope’s lips before leaving the room. Before Steffy exited she winked at Brooke with a smirk on her face Hope blushed and bit her lip, she smiled as she remembered the kisses.

Even though Katie thought it was a little gratuitous, she was happy to see Hope smiling. It also made her happy because it made her sister mad. The idea of Steffy and Hope, grinded Brooke to the bone and Katie knew it.

“We were enjoying ourselves before you came. I think you should leave.” Hope said to Brooke after she remembered other people were in the room.

“When she hurts you, you can come home. I’ll accept you with open arms. You need to do what’s right for Beth.”

Hope rolls her eyes, she had more than Beth to think about. She had three kids and that's her priority, she knew her mother was wrong, if by some reason she and Steffy didn't work out, she would be damned if she ever crawled back to her mother.


	36. Epilogue

Liam had been absolutely shocked; he was speechless when Brooke told him that Steffy and Hope were in a romantic relationship.

He felt like he was in the Twilight zone. He spent so many years battling his feelings and his heart for these women and neither one of them wanted to be with him. It was a crushing blow for him and then he found out that they were with each other.

It was so much for him to digest; he even had a thought to himself of all of them being together. It would take away so much of the guilt, but Steffy laughed at him. She called him pathetic. She had no urge to be in any kind of relationship with Liam. She exercised her sole custody; she was able to get the courts to see that Liam had no interest in her daughter’s life.

She took every single absence he made and used it against him. She told the courts that he neglected his child and his responsibilities as a father and the courts agreed. Hope brought a suit against him too; she established a pattern that he had. He used women and when he didn't get what he wanted, he made everyone suffer.

He was absent father by design, he used his children to try and manipulate the mothers. It wasn’t hard to make the court see who he was. A psychiatrist had to evaluate him, and he was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. It was something that Steffy knew about him, her mother had told her so many times.

The court’s careful watched all his visits. After he was diagnosed with the personality disorder, the judge thought it would be best that his supervised visits were under the care of a psychologist. He was closely monitored; it was a goal of the judge to not let the children unknowingly be coerced by Liam. The looming chance of his rights being severed was on the plate as well.

He tried to use the visits to curry favor, he wanted to have a more active role in co-parenting, he didn’t even get to see Steffy or Hope. There was always someone designated to pick the girls up or drop them off. It irked Liam. He thought that this was overboard, but the courts did not agree.

Hope and Steffy could care less what Liam wanted, they moved on with their lives and were happier for it. After the confrontation with Brooke, their life was smooth sailing. It was tough having three kids under the age of five, but they made it work even if they were outnumbered.

It was what they always wanted, it took them a while to get there, it took twists and turns and heartache, but they found their way back to each other and they were stronger than ever.

“What are you thinking about?” Donna was getting the last-minute preparations ready.

Katie was trying to find Hope’s shoes, was the last thing she was going to need.

“I’m just thinking about the journey here, to this point. I have been through so much, some of it good, some of it absolutely heart wrenching, but I’m on the other side and I’m so happy. I feel so lucky.” Hope had many other words that she could use to describe this moment but then she would make herself late.

“I’m happy for you. You have been through a lot and I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of this, I love you Hope.”

“I love you too Aunt Donna, I love you too Aunt Katie.” Hope really was happy that she had family on her side.

While Hope was getting ready in her room, Steffy was across the way getting ready in hers.

“You look almost perfect.” Luisa was doing her best friend’s make up as she spoke.

“Yeah, almost perfect, you’re missing something...” Lily B agreed.

“You too better not be teasing my daughter! I think she looks great.” Taylor didn’t understand what Steffy's friends were talking about.

“I wanted to give Steffy something. It’s something that Phoebe had gotten me when we had free time to go into the city when we were kids...”

“No you didn’t!” Steffy knew exactly what Lily was talking about.

It was Lily’s birthday and Phoebe was the last one to get her a gift, she didn’t know what to get her friend and she decided to go to just about every shop with Steffy and Luisa. They ended up getting an aquamarine necklace for Lily.

“Yes, I did. It’s something blue. And is something old come I know you don’t really do those kinds of traditions, but you know…” Lily was starting to get a little emotional.

“Yeah, I know, thank you for bringing me this. It really means the world to me.” It meant so much to Steffy for Lily to bring her this.

Taylor was crying, this was a small way that Phoebe was celebrating with them. Her daughter was not there with them but a piece of her was. It was such a lovely gesture for Lily to do.

Lily just hugged Taylor as Luisa put the necklace on Steffy.

Both ladies were ready, they came out of their rooms and saw each other.

They thought the same thought, beautiful… simply beautiful.

“As much as it is nice to stare at each other all day, it would be rude to your guests. What do you say instead of staring at each other now, you can do it after you two get married?” Ridge had been waiting for the both of them so he could walk them down.

“I guess we could do that.” Steffy rolled her eyes but today it was about her wedding.

It made Hope giggle, even now in these insanely beautiful dresses, Steffy could make her laugh out loud.

Both ladies We’re on either side Ridge. He walked them down the stairs and walk them down the makeshift aisle of Eric's home.

They listen to the Justice of the Peace speak, but they weren't really paying attention. Their hands were joined and all they could do is just stare at each other.

“I understand that you two wanted to say something to each other.”

“I guess I’ll go first. I just wanted to thank you. You came into my life during my darkest chapter. It was a surreal experience because I had done everything that I could to try and make myself happy again and I failed every single time. And then by chance I saw you and you were kind to me, when the same thing happened, I was not kind to you, and I regret that. I didn’t deserve it, but you gave it to me anyways and I really got to see who you were. I judged you on an idea of who I thought you were, but I got to expand my mind. The first time I held your hand it made my heartbeat so loud and fast. At first, I thought it was my anxiety and it wasn’t. I was falling in love before I knew it. I’ve always been in love with you and now I get to spend every single day of my life calling you my wife. It was everything that I ever wanted in it's finally coming true.” Hope was shaking, she couldn't keep her emotions in check. That what Steffy’s loved did her, she was off kilter in the best way.

“We have been through a lot together, things have happened to us that we couldn't foresee, and we weren’t together for some of it, but we got to the other side. I’m so happy, we have both fought for the life that we deserve, and we are getting it. Even though it took some detours, I’m so happy that we are at this point. We don’t need to get married to emphasize anything. We know that we’re in love with each other and we have a beautiful family. But our marriage is a promise, it’s a promise that we made to each other in the dead of night on the streets of Rome. We were going to share our lives with each other. I love you Hope, I adore the person that you are... We are on the other side because we want to be. We choose to be, bravely together and damn everything else. I get to marry the love of my life and I get to call her my wife.” Steffy gave Hope a wink.

“By the power vested in me and the state of California, I pronounce you wedded.” The Justice of the Peace said.

Contrary to popular belief you don’t actually have to kiss your spouse after getting married, but Steffy and Hope didn’t hear anything the Justice of the Peace said, they just heard California before they started kissing.

Everyone in Eric’s living room was clapping and cheering for them. They had so many people there to celebrate their union. It felt good to hear a thunderous applause for them.

Steffy and Hope had coordinated their Instagram post. They had dropped the bomb that they were married, and it set so many fashion publications ablaze.

They didn’t pay attention to any of that, they were just basking in the glow of being married to each other. They could care less but anyone else thought of them. They were just going to enjoy each other and be with their kids. That was the only thing that mattered to either of them.

Brooke on the other hand was seething. She was sure that Hope was going to come back to her, Steffy was just using her. Brooke had gotten a Google alert about Hope, she saw that all these fashion publications were saying Hope was married to Steffy.

She hadn’t seen Hope since that day at Donna’s, she had hoped that Hope would come to her senses. But she saw that Hope was erasing Brooke from her life, she changed her name. Hope Logan didn’t exist anymore. She didn’t know how Steffy could convince her daughter to throw everything that mattered away.

She lost her Hope forever, she had none of her children left. She just stared at her empty house and how quiet it was, she was sad because of how lonely she felt.

Liam had saw the headlines, he was in disbelief when he heard that they were together but now they were married, that was something completely different. More permanent!

Bill was angry, he didn’t like to be the last one to know about anything.

He finds out that the woman he loves is with that little twerp Hope. And he missed a scoop on it. He was disgusted that no one told him. If he couldn’t at least be with Steffy, he wanted to have the scoop so he can make some money off of this headline.

“How do you think some ‘concerned’ parties are reacting?” Hope couldn't help but ask as she was dancing with her wedded wife.

“Even though I don’t give a fuck, I’m sure that they're all mad. Varying degrees of course, but they all have that in common. The best part of it all is while we are living happy, we are also living in their heads rent free. And it screams to the petty part in me, I love it. We got our revenge, and we have our happiness. Is the best of both worlds baby…”

Hope nodded her head, Steffy had told her time and time again the best revenge that she ever had was moving on, everything else fell into its place when she did. In this moment, Hope could believe her wife because she had everything she wanted and the people who deserved to be miserable are...

She just kissed Steffy again and put her whole heart into it. They didn’t get to kiss for long because Phoebe and Beth we’re cutting in.

Sofia was somewhere in the house with Taylor and Ridge, but there was nothing more perfect in that moment than for Steffy and Hope dancing with their girls. The joy that they felt in hearing the laughter of their children was the most magical feeling.


End file.
